Archive for the ‘Online Processing’ Category

Cybercrime is the operation of computer crime with credit cards or debit cards, bank accounts, online stores, fake or a fake ATM machines.

With the economic downturn, thieves have increased their efforts towards cyber-intrusions, another illegal way of showing their demand and supply model.

Hackers are increasingly targeting operating systems of Smartphone’s, tablet PCs and mobile platforms. Read the rest of this entry »

PayPal makes its revenue by charging merchants a fee related to purchase prices.  These fees typically range from 1.9% to 2.9% in addition to a fixed $0.30 rate.  These fees should be interpreted by the Federal Reserve as interchange fees.

The Federal Reserve central bank has suggested capping interchange, or “swipe” charges, for each debit-card transaction, to $0.07 to $0.12 each.  This will replace the previous formula which charges merchants about 1% of the purchase. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers have developed a proof-of-concept Android program that can literally keep an ear out for credit card numbers.

Dubbed Soundminer, the software uses the phone’s microphone to listen for credit card numbers spoken aloud, or typed into the phone. (Source)

The Federal Reserve recently outlined a proposal for a new, reduced debit interchange rate. This new rate is the result of the Durbin Amendment, which requires the Fed to set a lower debit interchange rate early this year. (Source)

CyberSource, a subsidiary of payment card network Visa issued a report that online retailers lost $2.7 billion dollars 2010, compared to $3.3 billion for 2009.

Online merchants are becoming more aggressive about rejecting suspicious orders. North American Internet retailers rejected 2.7% of orders in 2010, up from 2.4% in 2009. (Source)

Internet security experts have come out with their predictions on the biggest threats in cyberspace for 2011.

The experts said that hackers and online criminals are increasingly taking aim at smart phones because they are often not up to date on security software.

Dave Marcus from McAfee Security said cyberspace security hasn’t kept up with mobile access to the World Wide Web. (Source)

The Federal Reserve is proposing new caps on debit card swipe fees, but unless you are a business merchant, you probably do not understand swipe fees and their impact.

A  ’swipe’ fee covers multiple fees, which merchants pay to the electronic payment processing networks when customers pay with a debit or credit card.

The largest swipe fee is the interchange fee. The interchange fee typically is synonymous with swipe fees, but interchange fees are a portion of the swipe fee that goes to the card issuing bank. Read the rest of this entry »