Pay by scanning a QR code

Paying by scan takes seconds once it is familiar. The skill worth practising is not the scanning — it is the three-line read of the screen that follows, because that read is where your money is actually protected.

The steps

1. Open the scanner in Kit Pay and point the camera at the code — printed at the counter, or shown on the seller's phone.
2. The payment screen opens with the details the code carries: who is being paid, and the amount if the code is amount-bound.
3. Read the name. It should match the business or person actually in front of you.
4. Read the amount. If the code was open, enter the agreed price yourself; if amount-bound, confirm it is what you agreed.
5. Approve with your wallet PIN or supported device security. The approval is tied to this payment and no other.
6. Show or tell the seller it is done — they will see it in their own history, which is their proof and yours.

Habits for the wild

• Match the name to the place. A code paying a personal name at a branded shop, or a business you have never heard of, is a question to ask before a payment to make.
• Prefer the code the seller shows on their device when a printed one looks tampered with, taped over, or suspiciously new.
• Never approve a payment while someone hurries your hand. Urgency at the moment of approval is the oldest trick there is.
• If a scan opens anything other than a Kit Pay payment screen — a website, a form, a sign-in — close it. Codes can carry links, and fake ones do.

Sellers carry the other half of the safety: signed merchant codes that fail verification when faked, and an amount-bound shape that locks agreed prices. If you trade, signed QR codes and taking payments at your counter are your side of the story.