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PayDay News | Australian Payments News

Square using machine learning and AI to cut off illicit tobacco

Senior Business Correspondent
21 Jan, 2026
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Michael Sainsbury
Senior Business Correspondent
21 Jan, 2026
Add us as a preferred source on Google
While a group of payments providers are actively working to help stop criminals, others appear to be sanguine, with well-known terminal providers still very visible in illegal tobacco and vape stores.
Square using machine learning and AI to cut off illicit tobacco
Square says it has used sophisticated machine learning and AI tools to identify and withdraw services from “hundreds” of customers.

While a group of payments providers are actively working to help stop criminals, others appear to be sanguine, with well-known terminal providers still very visible in illegal tobacco and vape stores.

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