On the wires:

• Axioma Launches Enhanced Global and Regional Risk Models
• Electronic Payment Exchange and Sprint Extend Relationship through Co-Marketing Deal
• Beanstream Introduces New Global Transaction Product Suite Allowing Merchants to Accept Payments From Around the World
• Global Payments Canada Teams with Precidia for Semi-Integrated EMV Solution for ECRs
• SEGA Chooses PlaySpan for Monetization of MLB Manager Online
• Contis Group Acquires GTP Financial Services for European Prepaid Push

On the web:

• New York Times: How to Avoid Credit Card Problems Abroad - Practical Traveler
• Dow Jones: Verifone Looks To Advances In Mobile Payment
• China Daily: PayPal to End Partnership with Alibaba
• New York Times: New Russian ATM’s Are Built to Detect Lies
• ComputerWorld: MasterCard Warns Skimming Hole Will Be Open For Years

On the wires:

• Ogone Brings Ethoca's Advanced Anti-Fraud Screening to 28,000 Merchants in Europe
• Mobey Forum Membership Increases as Industry Gets Serious About Mobile Payments
• Comviva Leads in Mobile Money and Recharge Solutions Across Growth Markets, With 92 Deployments Globally

On the web:

• ReadWriteWeb: Humble Barcode Scanning Could End Up Changing Your World
• AMEinfo.com: OneCard Enables its Users New Option to Buy Facebook Credits Directly
• NFC World: Turkcell launches commercial NFC payments with Yapi Kredi Bank (Turkey)
• Mobile Marketing Watch: 3 Reasons Mobile Payments Might Not Be Ready
• AllThingsD: Visa Says Mobile Payments Unveiling is Coming (This) Week
• telecoms.com: European Banks Issue Guidelines for NFC payments
• Wall Street Journal: Italy Telecom Operators Launch Joint Digital Payment Platform
• NYDailynews.com: Paper Purchase Receipts are Fast Fading from Daily Use
• Portals and Rails: United Front Needed to Prevent EMV Card Fraud from Picking Low-hanging Fruit

Digital River recently announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,881,972 entitled, Electronic Commerce System and Method for Detecting Fraud.

As part of the dynamic cross-linking data techniques inherent in Transaction Defender, this technology uses transaction information given by customers during the online checkout process to make instantaneous fraud detection decisions. The technology continually scans data points delivered from more than 150,000 Digital River hosted global online stores to reveal new risk patterns and trends in real-time and quickly identify and stop fraud attacks through one central action.

First Data has announced the next step in its eCommerce fraud detection and prevention solution with the launch of Fraud FlexDetect, built in collaboration with Accertify.

"We must be relentless in our efforts to stay one step ahead of fraudsters; with Fraud FlexDetect merchants can better respond to changing fraud trends," said Bruce Dragt, SVP and division manager, Payment Acceptance, First Data. "We are seeing a great initial response to this solution amongst our merchants. With Fraud FlexDetect, merchants can develop a customized strategy that strikes the right balance between control and delegation of fraud prevention activities, and because it is integrated into our existing payment platforms, there is virtually no IT effort or maintenance."

On the wires:

• Cardtronics Enlists Lexcel for Payment Network Testing
• Ethoca Partners with NCFTA, Launches FraudStop Service

On the web:

• Wall Street Journal: Google Pursues Role in Mobile Payments
• Portals and Rails: The nitty gritty of money transfer operators (MTOs)
• Mobile Commerce Daily: Mobile commerce and shopping experiencing phenomenal growth rates
• Wall Street Journal: Is Your Charity Chiseling You?
• paidContent: The NYT Pay Plan’s Most Dangerous Foe: Perception
• ETA Blog: Merchants Still Far From PCI Compliant
• China Daily: UnionPay network works well, competition not needed
• LINC New York: Innovations in Payment and Marketing in Web, Mobile and Social Networking

LexisNexis has announced the launch of its "new comprehensive fraud prevention solutions suite for protecting retailers from the risks associated with Card-Not-Present orders. For the first time, LexisNexis fully integrates its front-end identity fraud risk scoring with a workflow platform and fraud analyst review system, creating the ability to assess order risk at the transactional level, automate review processes and provide faster assessment for e-commerce retailers."

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Visa Sells Minority Stake in Brazilian Prepaid Issuer CBSS
• Zuora's January '11 Release Delivers New Subscription Pricing Power and Reduces Credit Card Fraud
• New Mercator Report on the Evolution of Payment System Risk Management
• Cynergy Data Selects Voltage Security for PCI-Compliant Email With Customers

• TechCrunch: Android In-App Payments Coming Soon — Were Delayed Because Developers Were Busy
• RetailWire: Retail TouchPoints: Starbucks, Disney and Guess Up The Ante With Mobile
• Visa Viewpoints: Barney Frank: Debit Card Provisions Need Amending

CyberSource has announced the results of its annual surveys of eCommerce fraud in North America and the U.K.

In the U.S. and Canada, online merchants say their 2010 fraud rate remained at 0.9% for the second straight year. U.K. merchants, on the other hand, say their fraud rate rose from 1.6% in 2009 to an average of 1.9% in 2010—twice the rate seen by U.S./Canadian merchants. CyberSource experts point to a number of likely causes for this development in the U.K., ranging from the greater incidence of cross-border eCommerce within the European region to “fraud migration” in which fraudsters, facing stiff challenges in one location, simply direct their efforts elsewhere, including the U.K.

BillingScore, a London-based mobile payments risk management firm, has announced the launch of its new service that will protect and insure SMS aggregators and service providers against fraudulent Premium SMS activity and artificially inflated traffic.

BlueCava recently announced the closing of a $5 million round of series A funding, which included two billionaire entrepreneurs - Mark Cuban and Tim Headington. BlueCava is positioning itself as a credit bureau for devices, providing information about good, bad, and historical activities conducted from desktop computers, mobile devices, and game consoles. The company hopes to find opportunities fighting online fraud and providing enhanced target marketing services. READ MORE »

MasterCard has announced it will hold its annual European Global Risk Management Conference in Barcelona, Spain Nov. 1-5. Following the Barcelona event, MasterCard will also host two concentrated forums in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Nov. 7-8 and in Johannesburg, South Africa on Nov. 11-12. READ MORE »

Guardian Analytics has announced the release of FraudMAP, a fraud prevention solution for protecting online accounts from fraud and identity theft. According to the company, "FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and rich, predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats without requiring fraud rules development or algorithm training."

MasterCard has announced its fifth annual Global Risk Management Symposium, bringing together more than 250 senior security professionals from financial services, law enforcement and other related industries in Huntington Beach, Calif., May 22-24. According to MasterCard, "the symposium is a three-day conference focused on exploring the security techniques, technologies and best practices for preventing and mitigating payment card fraud."