Bank association ‘aware of feedback’ after PayNow name masking spells out inappropriate words
The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) told CNA that the letter “X” was used instead of an asterisk, dash or another symbol because not all PayNow-related systems across its 29 participating institutions currently support special characters.
PayNow’s masking of names has led to users’ real names being displayed as obscene words. (Images: Facebook/Jeremy See/Ron Foo)
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SINGAPORE: The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Wednesday (Jun 10) said it was aware of feedback after the recent masking of PayNow users’ names resulted in inappropriate words being displayed.
The nickname feature for PayNow users was discontinued last Saturday, with users’ real names now displayed and certain letters masked with “X”.
However, this has led to some PayNow users’ names being displayed with letter combinations that inadvertently spell words such as “SEX”.
A Reddit thread highlighting the issue drew hundreds of comments, while users also took to Facebook to complain about the change.
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“My entire family’s surname just became NSFW (not safe for work),” wrote Facebook user Jeremy See, whose name was displayed as “JERXXX SEX WEX LOXX”. Another user, Ron Foo, wrote: “My name becomes so erotic … FOX SEX POX.”
Responding to CNA’s queries on why the letter “X” was used instead of an asterisk, dash or another symbol, ABS said not all PayNow-related systems across its 29 participating institutions currently support special characters, so a letter was used instead.
“The letter ‘X’ was chosen to mask certain letters as it is widely recognised as a symbol for something concealed or missing, and visually resembles a cross-out mark,” ABS director Ong-Ang Ai Boon added.
“ABS decided on this approach to swiftly disable a tool being exploited by scammers while maintaining a smooth PayNow experience.
“We seek customers’ understanding and will continue to review feedback for future improvements.”
The PayNow nickname feature was discontinued on Jun 6 to strengthen protection against impersonation scams.
ABS had noted that scammers were able to use the names of established entities or trusted individuals as their PayNow nicknames, enabling them to deceive victims into transferring money to fraudulent accounts.
The nickname feature, which was available since PayNow first launched in 2017, had been meant to address privacy concerns from customers who preferred not to display their registered account names when receiving payments via their mobile number or NRIC numbers.
Businesses using PayNow to receive payments via their unique entity numbers, or UENs, are unaffected by the change as they do not have access to the nickname feature and can only use their registered account names.
Source: CNA/ec(sn)
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