Convenience or Risk of Simple Transmittal System1)
On February 11, Viva Republica, the corporation that first had developed the simple transmittal system ‘Toss’, announced it would broaden its banking business and include credit checks, loan mediations, and account openings. Lee Seunggeon, creator of the system said that he had established Toss with the motto, “Create a system customers want to use, not a system they are forced to use”. As his motto implies, customers want to use the system. Toss has become one of the most convenient banking systems in Korea now. Besides Toss, there are a lot of simple transmittal systems such as Kakao Pay and Post Pay, which are also popular in Korea nowadays. The online applications of each of the pay systems allow customers to easily send and receive money without a remittance fee, which makes customers pay a service charge for doing. Also, use of one’s electronic public certificate is not necessary to do banking operations on those pay systems. To take advantage of a simple transmittal system, the only requirements for the customer are to accept the usage terms and provide a bank account number and a PIN (Personal Identification Number; i.e., password).
However, the systems’ simplicity is easily exploited, and people can suffer from the thievery of their bank account funds. Last year, there were numerous serious thefts of money from bank accounts. All victims were deprived of huge money because the criminal had access to their accounts with one click on the simple transmittal system. Investigations found that most criminals were acquaintances of the victims, and as such they knew their personal banking information. All that needed to steal the money was the victim’s birthday, account number, and PIN. In other words, it is easy to hack an account. Due to the vulnerability, lots of people, particularly seniors, who fear losing their personal information, still do not trust the systems and continue to visit banks to do their banking. It is essential that users of simple transmittal systems do not leak, even accidently, their personal information. It is important not to tell acquaintances, intimate friends, or even family their personal banking information. Above all, however, corporations need to work on solutions that maintain simplicity and increase security to resolve vulnerability issues.
1) Lee Jaewoon, “'Toss' System, Developed by Fin Tech, Challenge to Internet Primary Bank Field”, E daily, February 12, 2019
