On the wires:

• CashStar Continues to Extend eGift Card Leadership in Restaurant Industry
• Cashplus: Prepaid Cards to Make Refuelling Easier for Fleet Drivers
• Heartland Payment Systems Introduces Tip Manager for Restaurants
• Digital Payment Technologies Introduces Extend-by-Phone Service for Parking Pay Stations

On the web:

• paidContent: Blippy Abandons 'Purchase Sharing' Model
• Portals and Rails: The Dilemma of Measuring Fraud in the U.S.Payments System
• Rethink Wireless: Orange and O2 bring mobile payments to UK
• Infosecurity: Small Merchants Make Up Lion's Share of Credit Card Breaches
• New York Times: Study Says Spam Can Be Cut by Blocking Card Transactions
• NFCnews: Breaking Down ISIS
• InfoWorld: Why the Mobile Payments Frenzy Doesn't Matter
• Gizmodo: What Is BitCoin?

On the wires:

• eBillme and CashStar Partner to Process Cash Payments for eGift Cards
• Mobile Tag Launches the 1st Universal Platform for 2D, 1D and NFC Barcodes
• BillMyParents Partners With MovieTickets.com
• eps, giropay and iDEAL Promote Pan-European Online Banking Payment Scheme

On the web:

• Internet Retailer: eRetail sales rise 14.8% in 2010
• TechCrunch: Paperless Billing Service Doxo Raises $10 Million In Series B Funding

CashStar, a new interactive gift card and incentives company, has announced the launch of a e-gifting, marketing and promotions platform that enables businesses and consumers to securely e-mail monetary value such as Interactive Gift Cards, rewards, incentives and rebates. The company says that "several companies, including Uno Chicago Grill, Travelocity Incentives and Gorham Bike & Ski, are already offering Interactive Gift Cards via the CashStar platform. In addition, the company disclosed that is has secured more than $4 million in funding." READ MORE »