Mobile Payment Industry News

Friday, September 26, 2008

Consumers Safer When Left To Their Own Devices

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that U.S. retail eCommerce sales for the second quarter of 2008 totaled $34.6 billion (U.S.), an increase of more than 9% over the same period in 2007, while total retail sales increased by only 2.5%. Statistics Canada reports that, “Online sales increased at a double-digit pace for the sixth consecutive year in 2007. Total private and public sector Internet sales hit an estimated $62.7 billion, up 26% from 2006.”

While these figures still represent a relatively small percentage of the retail market, the numbers are staggering. eCommerce is big business.

But there's a problem inherent within the system.

Credit and debit cards, the primary payment system for online transactions, are really designed to be used face-to-face. In electronic purchasing there are too few ways for the merchant to be certain the credit card is being used by its owner, and no way for the purchaser to be sure their private information will not be disclosed by the merchant to a third party.

One obvious solution would be personal devices, such as the ones provided by HomeATM.

Consumers would swipe their own card - in their own home...and verify the transaction with a PIN. This solution provides double authentication to the merchant, and to V/MC, making it a more secure transaction.

Two more important things happen with a personal swiper.

The fact that the consumer "swiped" their own card transformed what would've been a "Card Not Present" or CNP transaction, into a "Card Present" or CP transaction. CP Transactions have a signficantly lower Interchange rate.

Secondly, after they entered their PIN, what would have been a CP transaction further evolves into a CP with PIN authentication transaction, further reducing the Interchange fees, because it further secures the transaction.

Obviously, by not having to type your personal account number into a box provided by the merchant, you eliminate the potential for screen scraping, keylogging, or other methods used by hackers.

Another big benefit that lies within this scenario is that because consumers are inserting their own personal cards into their own personal device vs. a computer or merchant key pad – the vendor would never have access to the customer’s PIN. This would further protect the customer in the event a merchant's e-commerce website data is breached.

Obviously, there would be no effect and it wouldn't affect consumer's who utilized HomeATM's personal swiping device...because their data wouldn't be there to be hacked in the first place.

Thus, when consumers are left to their own devices, it's a win-win situation for all involved.

Neiman Marcus Growth Driven by e-Commerce

It was clearly the web and e-commerce that drove sales growth at The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. for the 2008 fiscal year.

For the year, Neiman Marcus, grew web sales by 13.1% to $564.5 million from e-commerce sales of $499 million in fiscal 2007. In comparison, total revenue increased by 4.8% from $4.39 billion in fiscal 2007 to $4.6 billion in FY 2008. Store sales rose year-over-year by 4.9% to $3.85 billion from $3.67 billion. Neiman Marcus posted operating earnings of $466.4 million from operating earnings of $476.8 million in fiscal 2007.

Overall the web accounted for 12% of total revenue, but generated 62% of growth across all channels, including stores, catalog and the Internet.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Canadian Retailers Getting Riled by Interchange

Last week (Use a PIN to "Stop Sticking It to Us") I blogged about the Retail Council of Canada's new campaign against high interchange fees. In it, I mentioned that if all these organizations made the same effort to have their customers use PIN Debit, they would stop sticking it to themselves.

Apparently, the Retailer Council of Canada sure has the backing of Canada's major Retail Association's behind them.

I could see the very same transpiring on the Internet Retailing front. 100% of the Top 500 Internet Retailers would: increase the security of their transactions and save millions annually on the significantly reduced Interchange Fees, reduced because of the security of a PIN-based transaction.

Maybe call it "Start Sticking It To Us - With a PIN"

Here's more on the coalition from Canada.com:

Credit card companies pulling in record profits while retailers suffer - Mark Anderson, Canwest News Service

A shop-owner forwarded an e-mail from the Retail Council of Canada the other day. It appears the council, which represents some 40,000 storefronts across Canada, is attempting to organize opposition to ongoing increases in credit-card fees, the "interchange fees" card companies charge retailers for the right to conduct business though Visa, MasterCard, American Express or any other credit cards.

As it stands, Canadian retailers fork over about two per cent of the cost of any credit card transactions to card companies: if a customer purchases a lamp from a furniture store for $100, $2 goes to the card company; if the customer purchases a bedroom set for $10,000, $200 goes to the credit card company, and so on.

The retail council says interchange fees already amount to $4.5 billion annually and have been escalating of late with the introduction of "premium" cards that provide lavish awards points to card users, the catch being that the cards come with higher interchange fees, which means retailers and ultimately consumers end up paying for those incentive programs.

On top of that, the card companies charge retailers fees to rent the credit card processing equipment and software necessary to conduct card-based transactions, as well as a variety of additional fees, to the degree that one retailer told me he ends up shipping about one per cent of his annual $6-million in revenue directly to Visa, MasterCard and the like.

Fine, you might say, the cost of doing business. Except the retail council argues that Canadian interchange fees are already among the highest in the industrialized world; Canada is one of the only jurisdictions that doesn't regulate interchange fees; the fees should be charged on a flat fee basis not as a percentage of the total sale cost; and the fees are being increased in an arbitrary and non-transparent way. (My retail contact, who doesn't want to be named for fear of reprisals from card companies, says extra charges related to the issuance of premium cards came "out of the blue" and raised his average Visa interchange fees from about 1.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent).

The most important point is that as their margins get squeezed by interchange fees, retailers have no choice but to pass the costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services, leaving less money in the hands of everyone except the card companies.

Profit at Visa Inc., for example, rose 28 per cent to $314 million US in its most recent quarter. Few retailers can boast that kind of quarterly performance in an economic down-cycle.

Rubbing salt in the wound is the fact that Visa has set aside $3 billion from the record $18 billion US it raised when it went public in March in order to settle potential lawsuits stemming from allegations the company conspired to stifle competition and fix prices.

So the Retail Council of Canada has joined with the Canadian Booksellers Association, the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, the Hotel Association of Canada, the Canadian Independent Petroleum Marketers Association and others -- more than a dozen organizations representing more than 120,000 businesses -- to say enough's enough.

They call themselves, not unreasonably, the StopStickingItToUs Coalition, and they've vowed to make escalating interchange fees an election issue by encouraging consumers to sign petitions and retailers to contact their members of Parliament and demand that party leaders and candidates take a stand on the issue.

What if, I asked my retail contact, you all just stopped accepting credit cards? "We couldn't do that," he said. "Interchange fees are still better than bounced cheques."

What if you stopped accepting credit cards for a day? All 120,000 of you. And advertised widely in advance, apologizing to customers for the inconvenience and explaining the boycott's being done for their benefit and the benefit of the Canadian economy at large?

"That," he said after a moment, "could be very interesting indeed."

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Internet Retailer Releases 2009 Guide to E-Commerce

Research On E-Commerce Vendors
From the Authority in E-Retailing

Buying E-Commerce Technology in 2009? Buy This First!

Next year will be very competitive in e-retailing. Who isn’t trying to expand their share of this market—the only growth segment in all of retailing. But as online merchants look to be more competitive in 2009, they are going to employ more robust e-commerce solutions and services to capitalize on the spectacular growth of online retailing. Trouble is, there are now more than 700 e-commerce solutions vendors and service providers. How do you pick the right ones for you that make the most of your investment? It is a difficult and high-stakes proposition.

Now there’s a way to vastly simplify and empower your search for e-retailing technology and services—our just published 2009 Edition of the Guide to E-Commerce Technology, a 368-page directory from Internet Retailer, e-retailing’s leading information provider. Priced at only $59 plus shipping, this all-new Guide provides valuable independent research on e-retailing solutions providers you will not find anywhere else—the results of six-month's journalistic study of all segments of the e-commerce technology market. In this comprehensive report, you will find completely updated details and all new staff-written profiles of 700 providers of e-commerce technology and services organized into 22 market segments.

These are not paid listings provided by e-commerce vendors but rather independently researched profiles of the leading e-commerce vendors. Each vendor profile includes the following new and updated information:

Strategic Analysis of Their Business
Description of Products/Services
Primary Technology Category
Key Management Contacts
Date Established

List of Major Retail Clients
Typical Pricing of Products/Services
Key Features and Functions
Corporate Information
URL

In addition to this key information on all 700 e-commerce vendors, the Guide to E-Commerce Technology includes the following up-to-the-minute analysis and data on the e-commerce product and services market:

Comprehensive overview of the current and future state of web retailing technology and the strategies top e-retailers are using to improve their return on technology investment.

Five all-new feature articles by top consultants on how to select technology providers and applications that are right for you, choose between on-demand or off-the-shelf applications, develop and manage a growing e-commerce technology infrastructure, and use customer feedback to implement new technology effectively.

Focused analysis on key emerging technologies such as video, advanced personalization and mobile commerce.

An exclusive survey of e-retailer plans for e-commerce technology spending in 2009 and beyond

Contact data on 1,800 top executives at America’s most prestigious e-commerce solutions companies—all organized by company into an easy-to-read guide

Details on more than 30 e-commerce technology reports by key research firms

Synopses of 100 books on e-retailing strategy and technology.

Even if you purchased the 2007 edition of this Guide, the completely updated and new information contained in the 2009 Edition Guide to E-Commerce Technology makes it an essential research tool for e-retailers looking to be more competitive in 2009 and beyond.

How to Order: All this research on e-commerce vendors is available in one 368-page volume for only $59 plus shipping. Supplies of the Guide to E-Commerce Technology are limited but can be ordered online now.

USA most Hacktive - China Second

Study: Vast number of cyber attacks 'Made in the USA' • The Register

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Posted in Security, 23rd September 2008 03:48 GMT

When it comes to cybercrime, Eastern Europe, China, and Brazil may get the lion's share of press attention, but a new study shows a vast proportion of attacks come from computers in the United States.

Security firm SecureWorks has counted 20.6 million attacks against its customers that originated inside US borders so far this year. China ranked No. 2 on the list with 7.7 million, and Brazil and South Korea came in third and fourth, with 166,987 and 162,298 respectively. The study, which was released Monday, is a strong indication that there's no shortage of compromised computers on US soil.

The findings have important implications for organizations trying to fend off denial-of-service attacks and other net-based assaults. Namely, that they need to be aware of the threat that US-based machines pose. In August, after Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia, many Georgian IT staff members sought to secure their networks by blocking Russian IP addresses. They ended up getting clobbered anyway because they failed to block hostile computers from Turkey and the US, said Don Jackson, SecureWorks's director of threat intelligence.

Whereas many of the compromised machines in the US are under the control of people outside of the country, that is not generally the case in China. Entire university networks in that country remain under the control of hackers there, often with the help of insiders. Miscreants in Japan and Poland use much the same approach.

In related news, Chinese hacktivists have begun defacing the websites of several companies involved in the distribution of tainted milk. According to this post on the Dark Visitor blog, targets include the Sanlu Milk Company and the Mongolian Milk Corporation.

"When an infant with kidney stones lies weeping in a hospital bed, can the factory owners intuitively sense the condemnation?" one defacement reads. "In order to gain profit you have gone so far as to devastate these young lives!"

The defacements are designed to protest the shipping of baby formula containing melamine, a toxic chemical used illegally to make the milk appear it has more protein - and hoodwink food testing agencies. ®

Worlds Fastest Internet Belongs Seouly to S. Korea

Web boom in English-obsessed Korea on Yahoo! News

By Park Ju-minMon

Armed with the world's fastest Internet and an even stronger desire to learn English, South Koreans are using the latest Web resources to master a language that is the economic and emotional focus of their education.

On any given day, students ranging from kids learning their alphabet to adults preparing for job interviews sign in on their Internet messengers, fire up their webcams and wait for English teachers to appear -- from faraway continents.

They hope one-on-one chats with foreigners will help them fix pronunciation, get rid of native accents and feel more comfortable with a foreign language. The country's official teaching methods, based on grammar exercises and vocabulary lists, have consistently failed to deliver such benefits.

South Korea's average score in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is below the world average despite having the largest number of students taking the test.

"It is really nice to look at my English teacher through the computer screen and feel like having a chat with a new friend outside the country," said Oh Sun-young, who takes a Web-camera English course on Skype with her Philippine instructor.

Web English is the latest hit in South Korea's booming English education market, enabled by handy gadgets and widespread fiber-optics networks.

The new service, along with more traditional conversation courses offered by phone, is one of the fastest growing segments in South Korea's private English education industry, which is estimated at 15 trillion won ($13 billion) a year -- almost half of the country's annual education budget.

About 150 to 200 companies are in the market offering phone and Web English tutoring.

"Students who are very inexperienced with English may initially find the classes challenging, but within three months, there is a tremendous improvement in most of the students' speaking ability," said Tara McKibben, a phone English tutor who has been teaching over seven years from the United States.

KT Corp, South Korea's dominant fixed-line and broadband operator, provides a service called "Hello ET" cooperating with a South Korean English education company.

"We provide Web-cameras to our videophone English customers so that they can log on the website and have live chat with instructors," said Kang Joo-hyun, a "Hello ET" spokeswoman.

One-on-one conversation in English is technically close to real-live talk, held in Web phone service such as Skype. A message board opens adjacent to the conversation browser, so that participants can check the spelling of a word or start writing if they struggle to understand each other.

Internet portal SK Communications runs "Spicus" which includes a job interview drill on a video-chat platform. Applicants hand out their completed English resume before the drill. An interviewer stages a simulation interview through webcam, looking through resumes, and later provides feedback on logical speaking and communication skills.

"Interviewers are former officials in human resources department of big U.S. (companies) such as IBM," Ryu Hee-jo, a spokeswoman for SK Communications, said.

CHEAP AND CREDIBLE

Good English test scores and speaking skills are considered an indispensable key for success in South Korea. In their quest for fluent English, a great deal of wealthy South Koreans simply flee their country's school system and its rigid teaching methods.

South Korea ranks No. 1 in the number of international students in the United States, ahead of more populous India and China, according to U.S. Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

However, for those who cannot afford thousands of dollars a month in learning English abroad or spare time for look for meeting arrangements, video chat at home fulfills their aspiration at much cheaper prices. A three-times-a-week Web English course can be covered for about 100,000 won a month.

($1=1151.0 Won)

(Editing by Rhee So-eui and Derek Caney)

The First Credit Cards - A Quick History

Found this article in iafrica.com and thought it interesting. I especially got a kick out of Henry Fonda's Texaco Credit Card from 1953 pictured on the right.

iafrica.com |The history of credit

The History of Credit

Article by FNB and VISA

To know where you are going, it is important to know where you have been. With the increasing use and acceptance of plastic money in the form of debit, credit and pre-paid cards, as well as the growing global movement towards a cashless society, we investigate the history of the card and offer insights into where the industry is heading.

Credit was first used in Assyria, Babylon and Egypt 3000 years ago. The bill of exchange — the forerunner of banknotes — was established in the 14th century. Debts were settled by one-third cash and two-thirds bill of exchange. Paper money followed only in the 17th century.

Christopher Thornton, offering furniture that could be paid off on a weekly basis, placed the first advertisement for credit in 1730. From the 18th century until the early part of the 20th, tallymen sold clothes in return for small weekly payments. They were called 'tallymen' because they kept a record or tally of what people had bought on a wooden stick. One side of the stick was marked with notches to represent the amount of debt and the other side was a record of payments. In the 1920s, a shopper's plate — a 'buy now, pay later' system — was introduced in the USA. It could only be used in the shops that issued it.

The first charge cards

In 1950, the first 'plastic money' — charge cards — were issued in the USA, followed in the next year by the arrival of the first-ever credit cards issued to 200 consumers who could use them at 27 restaurants in New York. But it was only until the establishment of standards for the magnetic strip in 1970 that the credit card became part of the information age.

Since the introduction of bank cards in the early 1950s, the global acceptance and use of this form of payment system has grown exponentially. Today there is even a word for the study of money-like objects, such as credit cards, namely exonumia.

Exonumiasts collect any form of money — from the now familiar plastic cards to older paper merchant cards and even metal tokens that were accepted as early merchant credit cards. The first credit cards were made of celluloid and then metal and fibre, then paper and are now plastic.

Within the first seven years 5-million credit cards circulated in the US

Payment cards are a relatively recent development. Visa, for example, traces its history back 50 years to 1958 and within the first seven years 5-million credit cards circulated in the US.

Long before the first credit cards were issued, a visionary of the 19th century wrote that a cashless society, using credit cards for purchases, would exist at the end of the 20th century. Falling asleep in 1887, the narrator of Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward, published in 1888, wakes in the year 2000 to an America whose problems have been solved by getting rid of buying and selling.

Instead, 'A credit corresponding to his share of the annual product of the nation is given to every citizen on the public books at the beginning of each year, and a credit card issued him with which he procures at the public storehouses, found in every community, whatever he desires, whenever he desires it.' Bellamy's credit card is actually more similar to what we would call a debit card — one that draws from an established account.

The credit card was the successor of a variety of merchant credit schemes following the development of store-specific metal charge cards in 1928. These cards continued the system of extending credit to favoured customers and in 1938 several companies in America started to accept each other’s cards.

Early charge cards did not possess the key feature of modern credit cards: revolving credit, which allows cardholders to pay balances over time, while simultaneously charging new amounts. There are now countless variations on the basic concept of revolving credit for individuals, including organisation-branded credit cards, corporate-user credit cards and store cards.

The growth of credit cards has had an enormous impact on the global economy

The growth of credit cards has had an enormous impact on the global economy, changing buying habits by making it much easier for consumers to finance purchases.

Advances in technology have facilitated the use of credit cards. Merchants are now connected to banks electronically, so purchases are approved rapidly; online shopping on the Internet is possible with payment cards.

An alternative to credit cards is the debit card, which deducts the price of goods and services directly from customers' bank accounts. The design of the card itself has become a major selling point in recent years. Since the value of the card to the issuer is related to the customer's use of the card, there has been a rise of co-brand and affinity cards, leading to higher card use. In most cases, a percentage of the value of the card is returned to the affinity group.

The introduction of the latest in Visa chip card and contactless technology is bringing about the next evolution in plastic cards. Transactions are not only easier and more convenient, but may feature increased security as the card never leaves the holder's hand. Editor's Note: I don't know about that statement. RFID, by some accounts, may have a major security flaw enabling fraudsters to intercept the wireless transmission of the radio frequency waves. Doesn't have to leave the pocket. I've read reports that indicate the card information can, ironically, be "swiped" while it's sitting in the consumers wallet.

This cutting edge technology has an application beyond just banking and the functionality chip cards offer holds much potential for the card industry. The amount of storage space and the processing power of the chip card may allow various forms of information to be stored and utilised, such as biometric and personal contact info. These advances may likely contribute to making the concept of a cashless society a reality and also make the idea of having a single card for everything you need a realistic possibility.

While we still have some way to go before reaching Bellamy's vision of a cashless society, the rise of plastic money has put payment cards in nearly everyone's hands and it certainly looks to be a pivotal mechanism in the future of payment.

UK Cardholders Flock to Secure Their Online Payments

September 23, 2008 by Gill Montia

Story link: Cardholders flock to secure online payment methods

UK payment services association, Apacs, has reported a major increase in the volume of credit and debit card holders taking advantage of measures that can prevent online shopping fraud.

According to Apacs, over 25 million cards are now registered with secure online payment systems, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. Cardholder registration in August was up 150% over the year and had increased by nearly 600% on August 2006. The process of signing up is simple and can be completed on the websites of card providers.

The schemes offer enhanced protection against the unauthorised use of a card and provide state of the art online security without the need for additional software.

Online shopping card fraud was estimated at £223.8 million in 2007, when it formed around 77% of total card-not-present fraud losses in the UK. Last year’s figure was up from 45% from 2006, when Internet fraud losses stood at £154.5 million and accounted for 73% of total card-not-present fraud losses.

Unembossed Cards Supported by Visa

Visa today announced that it will begin supporting the issuance of "unembossed" cards in the U.S. for Visa consumer debit, business debit and consumer credit cards. Unembossed payment cards feature printed personalized information, such as the account number and cardholder name, rather than embossed with raised lettering currently found on most U.S credit and debit products.

By changing the Visa U.S.A Inc. Operating Regulations to allow the issuance of unembossed cards, Visa is providing more choice, flexibility and value for issuers and their cardholders. The move follows a series of successful pilot tests with a dozen U.S. financial institutions, including Commerce Bancshares, Inc., TD Banknorth and United Heritage Credit Union.

"Being able to instantly provide members with Visa cards has helped us drive activation, usage and loyalty while reducing costs," said Michael Ver Schuur, executive vice president at United Heritage Credit Union, which participated in a pilot program testing the unembossed Visa cards. "Not only that, our cardholders felt secure receiving their cards directly at the branch and enjoyed the ability to access their accounts conveniently right away."

Traditional embossed cards typically require lengthier production times and more complex supply chain management. Because the cards have to be created offsite, they are generally shipped to the cardholders days after enrollment, leaving the new cardholder unable to make purchases or conveniently access cash at ATMs in the interim or relying on a temporary generic card. The ability to provide personalized printed cards instantly at the bank branch enables cardholders to take advantage of their cards immediately.

Visa has permitted unembossed prepaid cards in the U.S. since 2005. The new regulations give issuers the ability to also issue a consumer debit or credit card as well as a business debit card immediately to customers, giving them greater flexibility to manage their Visa card distribution methods to best fit their business needs."Visa is always looking for ways to bring more value to our clients and their cardholders," said Stacey Pinkerd, Head of Global Consumer Debit Products, Visa Inc. "By allowing the issuance of unembossed cards, we enable issuers to choose the distribution method that best meets their business needs, while offering customers greater flexibility and customization. Looking ahead, we will continue to innovate to provide products that meet financial institutions' demand for flexibility and cardholders' demand for convenience and security."

Visa unembossed cards are accepted by most Visa merchants, with the exception of those who require a manual imprint at the point of sale such as with an old-style "zip-zap" machine, and can be used for purchases made online, by mail or by phone.

Monday, September 22, 2008

More on the Tealeaf/Harris Interactive e-Commerce Poll

Intolerance for online transaction issues jumps among British consumers in 2008

Intolerance for online transaction issues jumps among British consumers in 2008

Survey highlights £11.9 billion revenue opportunity for GB businesses that focus on improving online customer experiences.
An independent annual survey into online consumer behaviour conducted by Harris Interactive, and commissioned by Tealeaf highlights an increasingly unforgiving attitude towards online sites.

The study reveals that nearly 9 out of 10 British online adults (89%) who have conducted transactions online in the past year have experienced problems. Of those who have experienced problems, nearly half (49%) say they would abandon their transaction entirely or switch to a competitor (either online or offline) if they experienced a problem, a significant increase of 12 percentage points in just one year (37% in 2007). The 2008 rate of abandonment suggests that £11.9 billion in revenue could be affected by issues on shopping sites alone -- a huge opportunity for companies to harness, by ensuring their websites work. On the Web, the competition is a click away.

The ecommerce sector is buoyant in the UK, with shoppers spending over £26.5bn online in the first six months of 2008 (up 38% on 2007). Remarkably, the Tealeaf survey also found that, among all online adults in Great Britain, general preference for conducting business online (52%) has surpassed preference for conducting business in-person (41%) by more than 10 percentage points.

Simultaneously, expectations for online experience are also high. A full 87% of all online adults believe there is no reason why an online transaction cannot be completed first time, and 90% of those who have conducted an online transaction in the past year expect the same, or better, levels of customer service online as they do offline.

In addition to losing customers to the competition, companies that fail to provide high levels of online customer experience will likely see their reputation suffer as a result. Online transactional problems may lead to negative feelings towards companies -- 83% of online adults who experience problems conducting online transactions say they feel frustrated when they experience problems. The effect of this can be far-reaching, with 77% sharing their experience with others and with more than half (53%) telling their friends and family specifically in order to discourage them from using that website or doing business with the company. Of those sharing their experiences, 56% use online channels to share complaints or reviews. Unlike one-on-one conversations with friends or family, these digital conversations can be viewed by millions and live online indefinitely, therefore amplifying their impact.

Skim Scam

The Calgary Sun - New debit scam caught on video

They're a scourge to society and nefarious PIN pad peekers are nothing if not inventive.

A surveillance video recently obtained from an Airdrie convenience store shows a startling debit fraud scam far more sophisticated than so-called "shoulder surfing" and skimming machines, prompting the RCMP to warn retailers and customers alike.

"We're in a constant race, along with the banks and the financial institutes, to defeat what they're doing next ... this is an advancement for the criminals," Sgt. Patrick Webb said yesterday.

The footage, dated Sept. 11, shows three men entering the store just before closing time -- two acting as lookouts and distracting the clerk, the other covertly inspecting the business' PIN pad.

A fourth suspect, a woman, enters and uses a bag to shield the PIN pad from the retailer's view -- and ultimately, the man at the counter swipes the store's device and replaces it with a dummy pad.

It's a scheme likely to give crooks access to information from dozens of debit cards from a single retail location in just one day, said Const. Lane Menard of the RCMP's commercial crime section.

"Now that they've taken this pad, they go to a separate location, open it up and place some technology inside that allows them to copy the information from swiping your card, as well as a transmitter where they can receive all that information," said Menard.

"They will return the next morning with that original PIN pad, take their covert one and everything functions, and we're none the wiser."

In the case captured on video, a customer visited the store shortly after the card-swiping quartet departed and, when the debit pad didn't work, the retailer promptly notified authorities.

Mounties determined the dummy pad was actually stolen from Surrey, B.C., merely a day before.

In 2006, 119,000 debit cards in Canada had information lifted -- a small percentage considering the millions in circulation.

But, Menard said store owners should secure their PIN pads or keep them out of reach, while consumers should check their accounts for any

Friday, September 26, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Monday, September 22, 2008

Disqus for ePayment News