41st Parameter says it is "forecasting increased mobile channel cybercrime and decreased effectiveness of traditional anti-fraud tactics, attributed to the rapid adoption of new mobile handsets and multiple operating systems. According to a November 2009 consumer study of U.S. mobile phone users, 18.9 percent of mobile consumers now use a smartphone, and an additional 49.2 percent plan to purchase an advanced mobile device within the next two years. Last week, Gartner reported smartphone sales in 3Q09 grew 12.8% year over year, reaching 41.1 million units." READ MORE

The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is holding a hearing today titled "Aggressive Sales Tactics on the Internet and Their Impact on American Consumers" to explore efforts by some ecommerce companies to offer post-transaction marketing offers to consumers following a purchase. As part of this process, the ecommerce companies usually pass along the consumer's payment card information they've just captured for the purchase to the marketing partner. The Committee staff has prepared a report on the issues involved with this practice and a set of exhibits documenting some of the offers. READ MORE

CyberSource has announced the results of its latest annual survey of eCommerce fraud finding that "merchants in 2009 were fighting back against fraud, and seeing considerable evidence of success. U.S. and Canadian merchants expect to lose about $3.3 billion to eCommerce fraud this year, down from $4 billion last year. This is the first drop in estimated revenues lost since 2003. The percentage of revenue merchants predict they will lose in 2009, on average, is 1.2%, the lowest estimate in the 11-year history of the survey." READ MORE

MasterCard has announced the launch of a solution that harnesses the mobile phone as a form factor for its Chip Authentication Program. According to MasterCard," the initiative focuses on enabling consumers to authenticate their banking and online transactions through their own mobile phone with solutions from three leading industry vendors." READ MORE

In an article titled "At Checkout, More Ways to Avoid Cash or Plastic", Claire Cain Miller writes for the New York Times about how "consumers could, sooner than they think, carry virtual wallets, with their credit card and bank information stored on remote computers that are accessible everywhere and anytime."

To mark the first anniversary of the UK card industry’s Be Card Smart Online initiative, The UK Cards Association is again running its online safety campaign – helping to remind consumers of the steps they can take to minimize their chances of being a victim of card fraud online. READ MORE

Ashok Misra, Chairman of the CNP Payment Forum, has announced that the CNP Payment Forum (Customer-Not-Present) Annual Conference will be held in Berlin, Germany on May 18 and 19 at the Steigenberger Hotel.

Over on our PaymentsViews.com sister blog, Glenbrook's Russ Jones shares his perspective on what he found to be the most interesting item to come of our PayPal's Developer Conference earlier this week: PayPal Adaptive Accounts.

PayPal announced the PayPal X Developer Challenge by asking developers "to solve the fundamental problems people face when trying to pay or get paid." PayPal is offering prizes totaling $75,000 in cash and $75,000 in waived fees to winners in the Challenge. Contestants must build their applications using the PayPal X application programming interfaces (APIs). The challenge: create the most innovative payment application for businesses in areas such as services, social media, gaming, mobile and consumer electronics. READ MORE

At its first ever Developers Conference held in San Francisco today, PayPal opened its global payments platform, PayPal X including new application programming interfaces (APIs), a new developer portal and introductory services pricing to help developers reap the financial benefits of building businesses on PayPal X. PayPal also demonstrated a mobile payment toolkit to embed payments directly into mobile applications – starting with iPhone. READ MORE

SunTrust Banks and Moneta Corporation have announced that "SunTrust has selected Moneta’s online payment service to offer clients an additional payment option when they shop with select online retailers. The service is currently being provided free to select SunTrust clients as an initial pilot program." READ MORE

Verifi and Merchant e-Solutions (MeS) have announced a partnership to "jointly deliver a next-generation technology solution for risk management and payment processing. Integrating Verifi’s suite of fraud prevention services with Merchant e-Solutions’ innovative payment platform equips card-not-present (CNP) merchants with a powerful set of risk mitigation and business management capabilities." READ MORE

Fiserv has announced that its ACCEL/Exchange Network will begin processing and offering secure Internet Personal Identification Number (PIN) debit transactions in November 2009, saying it will be the first PIN debit payments network to do so. The offering is the result of a partnership with Acculynk, provider of a software-only service that enables PIN debit payments online. READ MORE

Zong has officially announced the launch Zong+, calling it "the first online mobile payment platform combining carrier billing with credit, debit and prepaid cards. Now, in addition to making online purchases through their cell phone bill, Zong customers will also be able to link any type of payment card to their Zong account through a one-time entry process and continue to purchase goods by simply entering their mobile number and confirming the security transaction code sent to their phone." READ MORE

Over on our sister PaymentsViews.com site, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a look at Amazon's just introduced PayPhrase checkout feature.

Jones writes:

I’ve long argued with Glenbrook colleagues that payment cards today are too spend-centric and too easily abused. Maybe the banking industry could learn something from Amazon about both convenience and security."

Amazon Payments has announced Amazon PayPhrase, an easy-to-remember shortcut for consumers paying on Amazon.com and other websites. "With Amazon PayPhrase, online shoppers simply choose their own customized phrase — such as “Knick Knack,” “Home Sweet Home,” or “Jake’s Allowance” — and then enter that phrase along with a PIN to quickly preview their order and complete their purchase. PayPhrase allows Amazon.com customers to checkout across the web with their preferred payment and shipping methods stored at Amazon.com, but without having to share sensitive payment information with multiple websites."

All websites accepting Checkout by Amazon, including DKNY, Jockey, Patagonia, Buy.com, J&R Electronics, and Car Toys, will be offering PayPhrase as a checkout option. Amazon.com customers can create their PayPhrase and start using it today by visiting http://www.amazon.com/payphrase. An introductory video is available that explains the service. READ MORE

TechCrunch reports on the introduction of Zong+, an extension to its original model of billing small purchases to your cell phone account that adds the ability to make purchases from a payment card account linked to your mobile number by Zong.

Zong+ allows consumers to make larger transactions -over $9.99. Merchants/publishers will benefit from lower fees and more timely settlement on Zong+ transactions because the mobile operator isn't getting a piece of the transaction amounts. Consumers benefit from being able to use their existing payment cards and while earning rewards, etc.

Among many other topics on yesterday's earnings conference call, Visa Inc. CEO Joseph W. Saunders spoke briefly about a new ecommerce solution being developed by Visa. He said Right Click by Visa was "an online shopping tool targeted to consumers that assists online shoppers." Saunders went on to say that it "assists online shoppers by offering the ability to browse multiple merchants and select items consumers are interested in looking at in one central location, making comparison shopping easier."

PayPal's parent eBay announced financial results for the third quarter 2009 today. PayPal's revenue grew 15% year over year to $688 MM. PayPal's purchase volume grew 19% to $17.7 billion. Active registered accounts reached 78 MM, up 19% year over year. PayPal's revenue ("transaction revenue rate") was 3.67% with transaction processing expense rate at 1.16% and a transaction loss rate of 0.25%.

A presentation on the results is available online. Bill Me Later's volume for the quarter was $200 MM, essentially flat with the prior quarter. BML's outstanding portfolio balance was $561 MM. Net chargeoffs in the BML portfolio were 11.5%, up from 11.1% in the prior quarter.

A transcript of today's eBay conference call is available from SeekingAlpha.com.

Mazooma, a real-time online debit payment solution for U.S. consumers, has announced that PETCO has signed an agreement to integrate the Mazooma solution on its Web site, PETCO.com. According to the two companies, "PETCO will now be able to provide a real time, bank authenticated debit payment option for its U.S. consumers, allowing online shoppers to easily and securely pay for their purchases with cash." READ MORE

PayPal has announced that a panel of leading venture capitalists will discuss "breakthrough opportunities in payments" available to entrepreneurs at the upcoming PayPal X Innovate 2009 developer conference in San Francisco on Nov. 3-4.

Moderated by GigaOm blogger Om Malik, the panel will include Brian Ascher from Venrock, Roger Lee from Battery Ventures, Eric O'Brien from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Dana Stalder from Matrix Partners. READ MORE

In an article titled "Closing the Deal at the Virtual Checkout Counter", Claire Cain Miller writes for the New York Times about how consumers sometimes load up their shopping carts online - and then just abandon them. She notes that "while there is no industrywide data, some e-commerce companies estimate that only about 3 percent of shoppers who visit an e-commerce site buy something, and when they do load their shopping carts, as many as two-thirds abandon them."

First Data has announced an agreement with PayPal that allows debit cardholders in First Data’s STAR Network to quickly link their STAR debit card to a PayPal account online. First Data says its STAR Network is "the first electronic funds transfer network to offer this innovative service to its member financial institutions." READ MORE

Green Dot and PayPal have announced an agreement that will allow U.S. consumers to load money directly to their PayPal accounts using Green Dot’s MoneyPak. This will enable people to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted without the need for a bank account or credit card. READ MORE

Amazon Payments LLC, an Amazon.com company, has announced the availability of the Amazon Mobile Payments Service (Amazon MPS) - saying it provides "developers, merchants and distributors of mobile applications an easy way to process payments from mobile devices and extend Amazon’s 1-Click checkout experience to their customers. Amazon MPS enables tens of millions of Amazon customers to use the existing payment and shipping information in their Amazon.com accounts to make purchases from their mobile devices. To get started using the Amazon Mobile Payments Service, visit http://amazonpayments.com/mps." READ MORE

Verifi has announced new enhancements to the IP Intelligence™ capabilities of its fraud prevention and risk management platform. Verifi’s IP Intelligence solution provides IP geolocation information, a key indicator of transaction risk and credit card fraud. In concert with Verifi’s suite of tools, IP Intelligence provides merchants with a comprehensive set of real-time fraud checks for online orders. READ MORE

In today's Apple announcement, Steve Jobs said that Apple's iTunes now had over 100,000,000 accounts - each including payment card credentials and enabled for one click purchasing.

eBillme has introduced eBillme Walk-In, a new way for consumers to shop online and pay with cash, without having a credit card or even a bank account. The company has partnered with providers including MoneyGram International to assemble what it calls "the largest network of U.S. based walk-in locations with the lowest transaction fee." READ MORE

BOKU has announced new merchants and publishers who have selected BOKU for its convenient, bank-grade payment solution - spanning the social and casual gaming, social networking and application spaces. According to the company, its service allows over 1.8 billion potential consumers to shop online and purchase virtual goods and digital content easily and securely using their mobile phone. READ MORE

India's Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of its m-Commerce service - 'mChek on Airtel´ on the voice platform. The new service provides secure use of voice (IVR) for m-Commerce transactions for all Airtel mobile customers. The mChek on Airtel service on voice will enable the 100-million-plus Airtel customers to pay Airtel mobile and fixed-line bills, recharge Airtel pre-paid and digitalTV accounts, recharge Delhi-Gurgaon expressway toll tags, pay insurance premiums, buy gifts, tickets and shop using their mobile phones. READ MORE