Fraud & Security

Consumer spending in the United States, in terms of February retail sales excluding auto, was up 8.7% over February 2021 and 17.3% over February 2019, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse report, which monitors in-store and online retail sales.President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work out a common …

As Russian armed forces continue their assault on Ukraine, Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and American Express Co. late Saturday said they are suspending all operations in Russia, following up on actions taken by the networks nearly a week earlier. Meanwhile, reports began to filter out of Russia that at least some …

With card issuers making it easier to dispute a transaction in the two years since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, observers say it has become harder for them to distinguish good customers from bad customers, especially when a transaction is disputed post-purchase. The latter case is when friendly fraud can occur, …

Visa Inc. will decrease interchange rates by 10% for small businesses accepting consumer credit cards in April, according to a Reuters report. The reduced rates will apply to online and card-present transactions and only to merchants with $250,000 or less in Visa consumer credit volumes, Reuters attributed its information to an …

The actions taken by the SWIFT payments-messaging network and by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine will have an impact, but a muted one, observers say.  The 49-year-old SWIFT system, which on Saturday said it is banning Russian banks, has not barred all …

Cross-border payments specialist Flywire Corp. reported its payment volume rose 75% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, to $3.1 billion. Volume for 2021 totaled $13.2 billion, up 76% from 2020.Walmart Inc. announced customers can send remittances from any of its U.S. stores to any of its stores in Mexico for a fee as low …

Delivery platform DoorDash Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Bbot, a provider of online and in-store ordering and payments technology for restaurants. Terms were not announced.A survey from PCI Pal of 1,100 Canadian consumers found that 85% said trust in an organization’s ability protect personal data and secure payment processes is of the …

Phishing attacks in December totaled 316,747, the highest monthly total ever recorded by Anti-Phishing Working Group, (APWG) since it began tracking the cybercrime in 2004. Overall, the number of phishing attacks has tripled from early 2020, when the APWG was observing between 68,000 and 94,000 attacks per month. The APWG, …

MoneyGram International Inc., which is being acquired by private-equity player Madison Dearborn for $1.8 billion, said it had fourth quarter revenue of $324.6 million, a 0.4% increase from $323.3 million in the 2020 fourth quarter. Net income for last quarter of 2021 was $4.2 million, a 37% decrease from $7.3 million …

Olo Pay is a new digital ordering platform for restaurants that soon will enable consumers to order and pay with the same payment data at different establishments without having to create unique credentials for each one. Dubbed borderless payments, this element is part of the newly launched Olo Pay from …