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Walmart’s ‘secure’ Apple Pay rival gets hacked, email addresses swiped

Updated Oct 29th, 2014 12:05PM EDT
Apple Pay Vs. Walmart CurrentC

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Oops! It didn’t take long after Walmart touted the CurrentC mobile payment platform as a “secure” alternative to Apple Pay for the platform to get hacked. Business Insider has obtained a copy of a message that’s being sent out to people using the CurrentC early trial program that informs them that a third party hacked into the system and swiped some of their email addresses.

RELATED: Walmart offers a boneheaded explanation for why it doesn’t accept Apple Pay

“Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the email addresses of some of you,” CurrentC writes. “Based on investigations conducted by MCX security personnel, only these email addresses were involved and no other information.”

MCX says that no financial information was stolen in the hack and also points out that “neither CurrentC nor MCX will ever send you emails asking for your financial account, social security number and other identifiable information,” which means that any emails you get asking for those things that are seemingly from MCX are likely phishing attacks.

This hack is particularly ironic because Walmart recently said that the biggest reason it’s supporting CurrentC over Apple Pay right now is because it’s “a payment option that is widely accepted, secure, and developed with [customers’] best interests in mind.”

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.