＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
PayPay, a smartphone payment application launched in October 2018 by PayPay Corporation, a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, did not initially generate a particularly booming response.
However, the “PayPay Campaign” for cashless “QR code payment” with the catchphrase “We’ll give you 10 billion yen” from December 4 was so explosively popular that it reached the “10 billion yen redemption amount” in just 10 days and ended on December 13.
1. What is “PayPay”?
It is an easy way to pay for your purchases by simply scanning the QR code of the store with your phone or having the store scan the barcode you present on your phone.
PayPay offers three payment options:(1) PayPay balance,(2) Yahoo! Money, or (3) credit card. Note that PayPay balance can be easily recharged from your bank account.
The advantage of PayPay, like other smartphone payment apps such as LINE Pay and Rakuten Pay, is that it eliminates the need to handle coins or bills.
The unique benefit of PayPay is that you can receive a PayPay bonus of 0.5% of the payment amount immediately after making the payment. Another benefit is that even if you don’t have a credit card, you can use it as long as you have a PayPay balance or Yahoo! Money balance.
However, there are two problems with PayPay registration, which are the cause of many fraudulent credit card use cases.
(1) You don’t need to enter your name or date of birth; just your credit card’s 16-digit number and expiration date.
(2) There is no limit to the number of times you can enter the 3-digit security code.
There are limitations to manually randomly trying combinations of “16-digit credit card number,” “expiration date,” and “3-digit security code,” but it is possible using a computer. This is “extremely incomplete as a means of identity verification,” and is a major problem in terms of security.
2. What is the “10 Billion Yen Giveaway” and “PayPay Campaign”?
Because of the generous campaign, which offered a 20% cash back on purchases and a total refund of 10 billion yen, it spread quickly through social media and ended in just 10 days, although it was scheduled to run until the end of March 2019.
3. What is “fraudulent use” of a credit card?
When registering for PayPay, a computer randomly tries combinations of “16-digit credit card number”, “expiration date”, and “3-digit security code”, and the user registers the “other person’s credit card number” that is found and uses it to make purchases. This means that even if the credit card has not been “stolen” or “skimmed”, the damage caused by fraudulent use can occur.
This means that even people who are not registered for PayPay are at risk of becoming “victims.”
Please note that only Yahoo! Cards, VISA Cards, and MASTER Cards can be used with PayPay, so if you have any of these cards, please be careful.
4. Future security measures
Starting December 18th, a “login limit” for the “security code” will be imposed.
5. Measures that individuals should take
(1) Check your credit card statement frequently to make sure there are no charges you don’t recognize.
If it is within six months and you contact your credit card company and explain that you did not use the card and that you have no recollection of the charge, you will be almost 100% compensated.
(2) If you discover that your credit card has been used fraudulently, it is a good idea to contact PayPay Inc. and the police.