written by Ho Kien Yi
Do you notice that these few years, Covid-19 has had a huge impact on e-wallet usage and has brought significant changes to Malaysians? It caused a surge in e-wallet usage of more than 80% in Malaysia as people are encouraged to make cashless transactions and create a cashless society. As more and more people are using e-wallets, the privacy and account safety of e-wallet users should be prioritised.
The number of personal data leakage are rising and has reached 22.5 million in Malaysia since the Covid-19 hit in the past few years.
Clement uses e-wallet mainly for food, online shopping and petrol.
Clement Goh, 22 years old, is a full-time student studying in Swinburne and currently taking his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He said he does worry about his account safety and personal data being leaked as his data can be obtained by any third party such as scammers and they can actually use the personal data that they get such as phone number or email address to send spam texts and emails, as well as make fraudulent calls to the victims.
“I personally do believe my data is being leaked to a certain extent especially with so many applications on our phone nowadays,” Clement said.
He believed that as having accounts on those applications, it is impossible for at least some of his data to not be leaked out.
Clement also said that “To further secure my e-wallet accounts, I would avoid binding my card to my e-wallet account to prevent any auto top up without my authorisation.”
Brandon said that he doesn’t carry cash anymore since he used the e-wallet applications.
“As for myself, I have never experienced anything like that happened, but I remember some of my friends receiving text messages clamming it is from Grab which felt a bit sketchy,” said Brandon Tan, 24 years old, is a fresh graduate that is currently working at an IT company.
Brandon mentioned that he thinks it is a dangerous thing to have personal data leaked but some steps can be taken to prevent it from happening.
“Our e-wallet accounts should be consistently checked and have notifications sent to your phone if any transactions have been made to keep track of our balance,” said Brandon.
Yun Jie suggested that we should not link our bank cards to e-wallets applications
Yun Jie, 22 years old, is a Media and Creative Studies final year student studying at UTAR and currently working as an intern. She mentioned that she often received spam text messages from unknown numbers which claimed they were from Touch n Go.
“I believe there will be methods that can be made to prevent the data leakage from happening. Anyone would be worried that their data that leaked but it can be prevented,” Yun Jie said.
After receiving the spam text messages, she instantly turned off the auto-debit function in her e-wallet applications to further secure her accounts.
Joan uses e-wallet applications ever since pandemic happened since it’s safer way to pay her expenses
Joan Chong, a 40 years old housewife said that personal data leakage is a big issue as of now. If anyone has kept up with the news, they would know it’s one of the top issues currently.
“I am definitely afraid of my data being leaked whenever I use those apps because you would not know when or how it will be leaked out. One day, you might receive a scam call and then realize that maybe your data may have been leaked out,” Joan said.
She also mentioned “There was a time when I received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number asking me to join a Shopee lucky draw which felt like a scam, and it was then when I realized that my data might have been leaked somehow. Sometimes I also get texts or calls saying that I’m the winner of some competition from e-wallet companies.”
Saw Thin has set up multi-factor authentication to further secure her e-wallet accounts
“I do use e-wallet applications like TNG and Shopee Pay,” said Saw Thin, 22 years old, a Finance and Management student that currently studying at UCSI.
“To strengthen the security of my e-wallets accounts, I will set up a strong password as well with different character combinations and biometrics such as fingerprint or face ID for logging in,” Saw Thin said.
Multi-factor authentication offers security precautions to an account. It can ensure the users' identity is protected from leakage.
Increasingly, there are more people using e-wallet applications, they may have concern about how to secure the safety of their accounts to prevent data leakage.
Here are three tips to protect the e-wallet accounts. Tips one, create a special password with random alphabets and numbers. Tips two, update the applications frequently as latest version will have stronger security. Tips three, the last tips! Download e-wallets applications from Play Store or App Store to prevent getting a fake application.
Great article!