- Political and legal influences
- Mobile money transfer services encourage illegal activities. The discreet nature and convenience of the service makes it appealing to criminals. Mobile money transfers can abet criminal acts in a number of ways:
- Make it easier for paying for illegal services and products such as prostitution and drugs (Zhang and Mark 34).
- Enable smuggling of contrabands across borders where the perpetrators of the act exchange payments remotely.
- Encourage corruption through the surreptitious exchange of bribes.
- Mobile banking and wireless money transfer pose a threat of possible theft. Users of mobile money transfer services stand a chance of getting robbed if transactions are not fully secured.
- Mobile money transfer endangers the service’s user in a number of ways:
- Hackers can gain access to a secured transaction channel and steal money or the bio data of an individual (Tobbin and Adjei 48).
- Scammers can trick unsuspecting victims to send them money with false promises of delivery of a product or service.
- Operators of a mobile money transfer platform can collude with criminals and compromise the security of the subscribers’ money and personal data (Lee 8).
- On a political front, mobile money transfer possesses the potential to influence the outcome of a political process. Supporters of a given political cause can contribute funds through the transfer service.
- Political contributions can be done under the following conditions:
- Subscribers of the service can contribute campaign funds to their favorite candidate
- Political party contributions can be sent through the service
- Contributions for a cause meant for the common good can be managed by the providers of a mobile money transfer platform.
- The historical and sociological effects
- Mobile payments have advanced the banking industry and improved lives across the world.
- Millions of people possess cell phones but do not have bank accounts. Mobile banking has played a big role in transforming the lives of under banked and unbanked segment of the population.
- Mobile banking has eased banking processes in a number of ways:
- Bank customers can make bank deposits via mobile devices, saving on time and energy.
- Customers can access bank services remotely at their own convenience.
- Automation of banking reduces operational cost for banks.
- Mobile payment services have eased business transactions and improved security as compared to cash payments.
- Mobile credit card readers have led to the growth of small businesses as clients have no reservations on spending electronic currency as compared to hard cash (Brown and Suresh 64).
- Bank customers can access information on their current financial position without incurring extra costs.
- Mobile money transfer services have played a great role in improving the lives.
- In developing countries mobile money transfer services have been used to raise funds in situations such as:
- Raise money for the starving communities in hunger stricken parts of Africa (Abu-Shanab and Osamah 43)
- Contributions for educational fees for needy students
- Contributions for building social amenity structures such as schools and hospitals
Sentence for use as part of the thesis:
Mobile banking has played a big role in transforming the lives of under banked and unbanked segment of the population.
Works Cited
Abu-Shanab, Emad, and Osamah Ghaleb. "Adoption of Mobile Commerce Technology: an Involvement of Trust and Risk Concerns." International Journal of Technology Diffusion (ijtd). 3.2 (2012): 36-49. Print.
Brown, Ryan A, and Suresh A. Sankaranarayanan. "Intelligent Store Agent for Mobile Shopping." International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications. 3.1 (2011): 57- 72. Print.
Lee, Cheon-Pyo. "The Impact of Technology Anxiety on the Use of Mobile Financial Applications." International Journal of Technology Diffusion. 1.4 (2010): 1-12. Print.
Tobbin, Peter, and Joseph Adjei. "Understanding the Characteristics of Early and Late Adopters of Technology: the Case of Mobile Money." International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications (ijesma). 4.2 (2012): 37-54. Print.
Zhang, Marina Y, and Mark Dodgson. High-tech Entrepreneurship in Asia: Innovation, Industry and Institutional Dynamics in Mobile Payments. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007. Print.
