Apple Pay rival CurrentC confirmed on Wednesday that the email addresses of several of its beta-testers have been stolen by hackers.
In an email to affected members of the pilot program, CurrentC admitted that “unauthorized third parties” gained access to a number of email addresses. The email addresses were the extent of the breach and no other personal information was taken.
According to Business Insider, CurrentC’s parent company, Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) said that the CurrentC application was not compromised, although the company refused to specify where the hack took place.
CurrentC made headlines earlier this week after reports surfaced that MCX has been working with retailers including Wal-Mart and Best Buy to ensure none of its partners support mobile payment systems from Apple or Google. MCX released a statement on the issue, writing, “When merchants choose to work with MCX, they choose to do so exclusively and we’re proud of the long list of merchants who have partnered with us.” That exclusivity condition has forced retailers to go as far as physically disabling near field communication functionality on sales terminals, even those that do not officially support Apple Pay.
While MCX bills CurrentC as a “secure mobile payment solution,” the ease with which the newly launched product was hacked raises concerns for customers who will need to hand over their social security number and driver’s license number in order to use the service.
