• U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is expected to announce a crackdown on a global mail-fraud scheme that allegedly stole millions of dollars from elderly victims, CNNMoney reported. At the center of the investigation is an Canadian processor named PacNet Services Ltd. that reportedly deposited many of the victims’ checks. …

• The total value of contactless transactions worldwide will reach nearly $500 billion next year, up fully 56% from an estimated $321 billion in 2016, according to Juniper Research. • Samsung Electronics America Inc. said more than 500,000 replacement Galaxy Note7 phablets have arrived in the U.S. and will be available …

• The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC selected IBM Corp.’s Power8 system for its real-time payments service, expected to go live next year. The IBM system will run software from VocaLink Holdings Ltd., which TCH selected last year as a vendor for its project. VocaLink is being acquired by MasterCard …

• Processor Fiserv Inc. said a new scoring model for its Payment Fraud Manager service designed specifically for automated clearing house transactions detected more than 90% of fraud while reviewing only 2% of the transactions in model validation tests. • Payment gateway Network Merchants LLC announced its SwIPe EMV chip …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews When it comes to actively testing sensitive data networks for problems, only 23% of companies consider themselves as “very proactive.” This finding from a new Osterman Research Inc. survey of 126 companies representing thousands of employees arrives as the onslaught of breaches and malware continues to wreak …

• USA Technologies Inc., a provider of wireless payment services for vending machines and other unattended merchant locations, reported $169 million in purchase volume on its 429,000-location network in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 ended June 30, up 50% from a year earlier. Transaction volume hit 89 million, up …

• MasterCard Inc. issued its latest U.S. EMV progress report; the network says it has 2 million chip-active merchant locations and that 88% of MasterCard consumer credit cards now have chips. • Processor Elavon announced it is launching a tablet-based point-of-sale product in Canada in conjunction with talech, a POS …

• A consumer class-action lawsuit filed by the United Kingdom government’s former financial-services ombudsman against MasterCard Inc. seeks 14 billion pounds ($18.6 billion) in damages for allegedly charging excessive merchant fees between 1992 and 2008, expenses merchants passed on to consumers. In a statement, MasterCard said it “firmly” disagrees with …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews An eyebrow-raising consumer class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in the United Kingdom against MasterCard Inc. over payment card acceptance costs has parallels with U.S. card litigation, and like its American cousins, the British lawsuit faces an uncertain future. The suit seeks £14 billion ($18.6 billion) in damages, the biggest …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Tech companies like Square Inc. made their reputations by rolling out simple card readers that linked to Apple Inc.’s