Rafael Lourenco
Takeaways from Mobile Payments Conference 2018: We were very pleased with the overall atmosphere and ideas that comprised last month’s Mobile Payments Conference.
Our EVP, Rafael Lourenco, participated in a panel called Mobile Payment Fraud: Picking Your Pocket in the 21st Century where he was joined by other industry experts: Michael Reitblat, Co-Founder and CEO of Forter, Frank Kerr, Chief Sales Officer of TableSafe, Craig Winter, Senior Product Management Director of Syniverse, and Marianne Crowe, VP of Payment Strategies of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
This panel of fraud leaders discussed how the rise of mobile transactions is creating a whole new need for mobile fraud prevention and management. Today, 62% of smartphone users have made a purchase with their mobile device in the last 6 months, with Forrester finding that smartphones will be used in over one-third-or more than $1 trillion-of total U.S. retail sales at some point in the process of buying something in 2018.
“With all that growth, retailers that provide transactional services for customers on mobile devices need to understand the risks,” said Rafael Lourenco, EVP of ClearSale. “In some cases, mobile transactions are twice as likely to be fraudulent. Providing education on these realities and discussing some of the newest tools that are available to combat mobile fraud is so vital, I’m glad that it was a featured topic at Mobile Payments Conference.”
Some of the most intriguing solutions shared had to do with SMS (text messaging) verification. This brought about a lot of interest from attendees, which we were thrilled to see. At ClearSale, our database allows us to match phone number to owners, which is one of the multiple ways that we mitigate fraud attempts for our customers.
Text-to-verify will be in high demand, as the cell number that is connected to a consumer’s credit card information will be informed about the purchase and can confirm or deny, without the need of a phone call. “We are very interested in this as a validation process, we think this could be a great weapon in our arsenal of fraud-fighting techniques,” said Lourenco.
As mobile transactions are growing globally, Lourenco notes, the industry is becoming more dynamic overall. “I see that there are some real issues being solved in countries where it is greatly needed, especially those that don’t have the kind of bank and credit company penetration that the US has. Mobile wallets, blockchain and the potential for cryptocurrency are going to prevail in Asian and African countries. I foresee them being slower to adopt in countries like the US, whose need for it isn’t as dire.”
The Mobile Payments Conference provided a lot of great content that speaks to the future of mobile. As mobile payments becomes more and more global, there is a willingness to find and create the most local, personal experience possible.
