A method and apparatus for processing secure transactions of a requested service at a merchant point of sale (POS) using a customer mobile device and a virtual payment gateway (VPG) server, the method comprising an authentication and a transaction. The activation establishes a mobile device transport key (mTK) at the mobile device and a server, and assigns a mobile application identifier (MAID) to a mobile application of the mobile device. The transaction is based on generating a mobile device transport session key (msTK) derived from a server generated session ID and the mobile device transport key (mTK) generated during activation. The transaction of the requested service is initiated by the customer mobile device and is processed without storing confidential data such as financial account data or financial account identification data at the POS and/or the customer mobile.