The Mystery of the Ghost Refund: How Apple and Google Send Money Back to a Card They Never Saw
SMRTR summary
When returning items bought with Apple Pay or Google Pay, customers often discover their physical card numbers don't match the receipt because merchants only see virtual tokens, not real card details. The refund process works by merchants sending money back through the same token system, where payment networks map the virtual numbers back to actual bank accounts, maintaining complete privacy while sometimes requiring customers to tap their phones again for security verification.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Hacker Noon.
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