Although some of us are totally stunned by developments in the mobile payment world like Square, a physical add-on to smartphones that lets you process payments on-the-go (great for bands or basically anyone who does a lot of business while traveling) , technology looks to make the process of paying via credit card even more streamlined. This is where Jumio enters the fray.
Jumio does quite a few neat things:
1. It reads your credit card information just by taking a snapshot of the information
2. It verifies against fraud by being able to detect the plasticity of the card itself
3. It can determined whether the numbers printed on the card are embossed
4. It can even detect the hologram
CEO Daniel Mattes argues that this four-tiered approach boasted by Jumio is a huge step against credit card fraud; no longer can perpetrators simply have the pertinent account number-name match-up, but they need the physical card. Or at the least, a clever decoy to fool the gadget.
At CNet, however, Rafe Needleman argues:
Jumio improves the convenience and security of the credit card system and has the big advantage of requiring no major infrastructure or behavioral change by consumers or credit card companies.
Although he’s quick to cut his praise for Jumio short, adding that it’s simply a short-term fix on an antiquated system (credit card handling):
Technologies like Jumio can plaster over the flaws in this ancient architecture–and profit greatly in the process–but really it’s time for a new way to grant access to, and prevent fraud of, financial accounts.
However, until that “new way” is forged, Jumio might be able to carve out a name for itself as a leading mobile payment solutions provider.