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Qpass Inc. has announced it is the first processor to reach the $1 billion mark in premium digital content. The Seattle-based company, which produces billing software primarily for mobile carriers, says it hit the milestone Jan. 11 and has now exceeded 400 million paid downloads on its platform. While not …
Read More »PayPal Ends ’05 with a 40% Jump in Traffic As Accounts Boom
Internet payments processor PayPal Inc. saw its transaction volume grow 40% in 2005's fourth quarter over the year-ago period, to 139.7 million transactions, according to figures released yesterday by parent company eBay Inc. The processor's fourth-quarter volume, which included holiday activity, was also up 19% over third-quarter traffic. Dollar volume …
Read More »With Some Network Help, ShopNBC Cuts Its Prepaid Card Losses
Writeoffs stemming from transactions on prepaid cards, which had been swelling at online merchant ShopNBC, have eased considerably in the past few months, the retailer reports. Bad debt attributable to the plastic accounted for 3% of total writeoffs for 2005 at ShopNBC, which sells jewelry and electronic gear online at …
Read More »Phishing Trends Take an Ominous Turn As Malware Incidents Rise
Afer a let-up last summer, the phishing scourge appears to be getting worse. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reports the number of unique phishing attacks grew 6.7% in November over the count in October, to 16,882. This represents a new record high for the online fraud, in which criminals use bogus …
Read More »Online Merchants, Issuers Begin to Respond to SecureCode Incentives
Deep discounts on interchange rates for Internet transactions authenticated through MasterCard International's SecureCode technology are taking effect just as the security system appears to be attracting more issuers and online merchants, according to a vendor of online authentication systems that supports both SecureCode and Visa USA's rival Verified by Visa …
Read More »Online Banking Falls Short in Identity Fraud Prevention, Study Shows
The financial institutions whose online banking sites are doing the best job of protecting customers from identity fraud are Bank of America, Citibank, E*Trade Bank, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo Bank, according to a study released today. These banks scored in the top five of 28 institutions whose online banking …
Read More »BitPass Expands Micropayment Functions with Yaga Acquisition
BitPass Inc. has acquired rival micropayments processor Yaga Inc. in a deal that hands the Menlo, Calif.-based BitPass technology to support subscription and payment-aggregation models. The acquisition agreement, terms of which were not released, calls for BitPass to take over Yaga's platform, intellectual property, and client contracts. Staff at San …
Read More »Visa Reports $257 Billion for ’05 Holiday Season, with a Dec. 23 Peak
In its final holiday-spending report for the season, Visa USA said today retail spending on its cards hit $257 billion for November and December 2005, up 17.5% from the same period in 2004. Visa says e-commerce activity for the holiday-shopping season totaled $26.5 billion, peaking at $624 million on Dec. …
Read More »Holiday Card Spending Ramps up in Stores And on the Internet
The week ended Dec. 18 included three of the four heaviest spending days of the holiday shopping season so far, according to the latest report from Visa USA. Spending on Visa-branded cards totaled $5.2 billion on Dec. 16, ranking that day the busiest of the season. Black Friday, the day …
Read More »Phishing E-mail Volume Sets a New Record After a Summer Swoon
The phishing scourge made a comeback in October, hitting a new record level after three straight months of decline. The number of reported, unique phishing e-mails came to 15,820, up 17% from the 13,562 reported in September, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a consortium of electronic payment companies, software …
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