Hong Kong halts e-wallet auto top-ups after user reports of missing funds
- In a major disruption to the city’s plan to develop into a smart banking centre, the HKMA says it has ordered the shutdown of top-up features using the Faster Payment System to Octopus and other stored value cards
Hong Kong’s smart banking push got a big slap down after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority ordered e-wallet operators to suspend auto transfers via the recently-launched Faster Payment System to top-up Octopus, and the Hong Kong units of Alipay and WeChat Pay, after a number of fraud cases came to light.
The suspension order, unveiled Wednesday evening, came after the HKMA found a number of customers had suffered a combined loss of HK$180,000, with most cases involving several thousands of dollars in losses, via the Faster Payment System. The biggest single amount was about HK$100,000, a spokeswoman said.
The HKMA order comes just three weeks after the service was introduced.
“The incidents are now being investigated by the police,” the spokeswoman said. “The HKMA has requested all e-wallets operators to suspend the electronic Direct Debit Authorization (eDDA) for automatically top-up via the Faster Payment System until they can find way to review the procedure.”
She added that three complaints, involving theft of personal data, had been received since the launch of the new payment system.