New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has announced an agreement that will require PayPal to better disclose the rights of account holders when an affiliated merchant fails to deliver merchandise. READ MORE »

Netcraft is reporting on a recent phishing attack that included the use of a server SSL certificate by the attacker.

The FTC has been recommending to consumers that they always check for the presence of the SSL "lock" in their browsers as one way to protect against phishing attacks. This particular phishing attack demonstrates that even fraudsters know how to secure their websites with SSL server certificates!

Reuters is reporting that federal and state investigators are looking into whether PayPal may have violated consumer protection laws in its efforts to fight online fraud. READ MORE »

APACS has announced the latest statistics on payment card fraud in the UK (PDF) showing the first decline in fraud in eight years. Interestingly, the decline in fraud was attributed solely to lower levels of fraud on UK cards used abroad. ID Fraud attributed to both fraudulent card applications and account takeover activity increased 45% over 2003 although it still represents only slightly more than 7 percent of total fraud losses.

A report from Helsinki on a new SMS-based mobile payments system. The system involves banks participating as funding/loading partners rather than posting the payments made to the user's mobile phone bill. [Tnx: Simon Lelieveldt]

Jennifer Kingson reports in this morning's American Banker on a controversial proposal that NACHA is considering that would compensate receiving banks in the ACH system for their costs anytime an ACH transaction is returned to the sending bank.

As the use of the ACH for telephone and Internet-based payments has grown, a disproportionate share of returned items are falling into those two categories. The fee question is scheduled for further discussion at NACHA's upcoming Payments 2004 conference in Seattle later this month.

Ari Weinberg reports in Forbes on the growth in debit card volume in the US vs. credit card. READ MORE »

David Uren reports from Australia on Visa International's offer to reduce debit card interchange fees. READ MORE »