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Uber will pay drivers and couriers after every trip
Uber is making a bigger push into payments and financial services by setting up a division called Uber Money. Among the initiatives Uber has in store is paying its more than 4 million drivers and couriers after each ride. It plans to do so through its no-fee mobile bank account, which it's integrating into the Uber Driver app.
(Almost) everything you wanted to know about the Apple Card
With its latest product, Apple wants your money. But it also wants to be your personal finance coach. The company is pitching the Apple Card as a way to "help customers lead a healthier financial life," mostly through an intuitive app interface, a lack of fees and a unique new payment structure. The Card, issued in partnership with Goldman Sachs, does appear to give consumers greater control and understanding of their debt. But it's also another way to keep users stuck in the Apple walled garden -- how can you switch to Android when you owe thousands on your Apple Card?
Sorry, MasterCard's free trial protection only applies to physical goods
Yesterday, MasterCard announced a new feature that would protect its customers from the automatic billing that kicks in after a free trial. The policy will require merchants to notify users about the end of the free trial, the cost of continuing with a subscription and how to cancel the subscription. And it seems like a pretty good feature, especially if you tend to forget to end subscriptions after free trials. But MasterCard has now updated its blog post about the new policy and it looks like it will only apply to physical products, not digital services.
MasterCard won't let companies bill you after free trials for physical products (update)
We've all made the mistake of starting a free trial and forgetting to cancel it before the billing period kicks in. Now, MasterCard will protect against this --but only for physical products. The company announced a new policy that will require merchants to get authorization from you before hitting you with recurring charges for subscriptions. It will also require companies to provide you with monthly updates with pricing and clear instructions on how to cancel if you need it.
US Secret Service is probing how crooks use smart credit cards for fraud
Credit card thieves have been taking advantage of smart card technologies to avoid getting caught, according to Krebs on Security. The US Secret Service offices in New York and St. Louis have apparently been working on a criminal investigation involving fraud rings using Fuze Cards to store stolen card data. Fuze Cards allow you to store up to 30 credit card details, and you can switch between them using the small screen on the front. It makes the data of the card you want to use available to merchants via a magnetic stripe and an embedded chip. You can also use them to withdraw money from ATMs.
US government payment site leaks 14 million customer records
Government Payment Service Inc -- the company thousands of local governments in the US use to accept online payments for everything from court-ordered fines and licensing fees -- has compromised more than 14 million customer records dating back to 2012, KrebsOnSecurity reports. According to the security investigation site, the leaked information includes names, addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit cards.
Square sellers no longer need signatures for card payments
Square Cash is continuing its crusade to make the business of parting with your hard-earned money a little less painful. It's just announced that it's cut down EMV transaction time on Square Reader for contactless and chip even further, to just two seconds, compared to the average eight to 13 seconds. The process uses a new "dip transaction flow" that prioritizes the parts of a transaction that are critical to security, which means less time standing in line, waiting for your card info to churn through to the issuer.
You can't buy bitcoin with Wells Fargo credit cards anymore
Wells Fargo is pumping the brakes on customers using their credit cards to buy bitcoin -- the bank has banned credit card cryptocurrency purchases. However, this isn't a permanent measure, as Wells Fargo will monitor the crypto market and reassess the issue as needed, Bloomberg reports. Wells Fargo joins Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, along with some UK banks, in banning credit crypto purchases.
NYPD says 'Skim Reaper' device could curb ATM fraud
Skimming costs US consumers more than a billion dollars a year. The practice, which sees devices illegally installed on ATMs and gas station pumps to "skim" credit card information from unsuspecting users, can affect everyone. Even cybersecurity expert Patrick Traynor, who's now come up with a solution that could end the nefarious crime for good.
Recommended Reading: The 'Stories' invasion won't relent anytime soon
Why 'Stories' Took Over Your Smartphone Ian Bogost, The Atlantic Snapchat may have created the monster, but in nearly every social (and some not-so-social) app you fire up, you'll be greeted with a feed of Stories. In fact, Facebook says the format is on pace to be more popular than a primary feed as the preferred way to share updates. The Atlantic explains how the ephemeral format took over your phone and why it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Facebook was a bulletin board for identity theft sales
Cybercriminals have been advertising stolen information like addresses, credit card numbers, dates of birth and social security numbers on Facebook, Motherboard reports today, and they've been doing it unchecked for years. Security researcher Justin Shafer tipped Motherboard off to the information, much of which could be easily found through simple Google searches. A lot of the private information posted on Facebook appeared to be used in advertisements shared by those looking to sell the data and Motherboard was able to confirm that at least some of the stolen info was accurate.
You won't have to sign for credit card purchases much longer
For all of the progress the US has made in payment technology, it still clings to the past when it comes to credit card payments. You still have to sign for many in-person purchases, which is downright backwards in an era of chip-based cards and digital tokens. And the financial industry is finally ready to kiss them goodbye. As of later in April, four of the biggest credit card networks (AmEx, Discover, Mastercard and Visa) will no longer require signatures for these credit card transactions. It's up to retailers to decide whether or not to ditch handwritten approvals. As the New York Times noted, though, it's doubtful many retailers will keep up the tradition.
Hackers take 5 million payment cards from Saks, Lord & Taylor stores
The wave of large-scale retail data breaches isn't about to subside any time soon. Gemini Advisory has discovered that a JokerStash online crime syndicate, Fin7, is planning to sell over 5 million payment cards stolen from the databases of 83 Saks Fifth Avenue stores (including Off 5th) and the entire network of Lord & Taylor. The crooks are 'only' selling 125,000 of the cards on the Dark Web as of this writing, but the rest are expected to reach the black market in the months ahead. The breaches reportedly started in May 2017, but could be continuing to this day.
Orbitz data breach exposed 880,000 payment cards
Orbitz announced today that it has discovered evidence of a data breach, making it just another of the many companies recently afflicted. Between October and December of last year, hackers may have accessed consumer data submitted to a legacy website between January 1, 2016 and June 22, 2016. Additionally, Orbitz partner platform data submitted between January 1, 2016 and December 22, 2017 may also have been breached. The company discovered signs of the breach on March 1st and estimates that approximately 880,000 credit cards may have been impacted. While social security numbers, passport and travel itinerary information don't appear to have been accessed, names, payment card information, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, physical and billing addresses and gender may have been. However, Orbitz said that it doesn't have direct evidence that any of this information was actually stolen. Besides information brokers like Equifax, travel-related services have been juicy targets for hackers with tons of stored IDs -- hotel chains like Hyatt, Hilton and Intercontinental have all been hit.
Woz was scammed out of Bitcoins now worth over $70,000
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has demonstrated the issue of bitcoin fraud by falling victim to an old school internet scam. Speaking at The Economic Times of India's global business summit this week, he said that someone bought seven bitcoins from him using a credit card, but canceled the card after the bitcoin was transferred, so the payment failed to process. And of course the card was stolen, so there was no way to retrieve his lost assets. He bought when the cryptocurrency was priced at $700, but the loss would be worth the equivalent of $71,400 today.
Banks ban credit purchase of cryptocurrency due to risks
If you use your Bank of America-, JP Morgan Chase- or Citigroup-issued credit card to buy cryptocurrency, then you'll have to find an alternative ASAP. According to Bloomberg, the banks have banned crypto purchase using their cards due to the virtual coins' volatile nature. BofA has already started declining credit transactions with known exchanges, though its debit cards aren't be affected by the ban. Citigroup also announced on Friday that it'll no longer process crypto purchases, while JP Morgan Chase's new rule will take effect today.
OnePlus says up to 40,000 customers affected in credit card breach
After learning that fraudulent charges were appearing on its customers' credit cards, smartphone maker OnePlus disabled support for credit card payments and launched an on-going investigation. The preliminary results are in, however, and they're definitely concerning. In a statement released today, OnePlus said credit card information belonging to up to 40,000 customers was captured by a malicious (and currently unknown) actor between November 2017 and mid-January 2018.
OnePlus halts credit card payments on its site after fraud reports
This weekend, reports began to surface that some people who had made purchases on OnePlus' website were seeing unauthorized transactions pop up on their credit cards. OnePlus released a statement on its website saying that it was looking into the issue and today in an update, the company said it's shutting down credit card payments on its site. "This is a serious issue and we are investigating around the clock. As a precaution, we are temporarily disabling credit card payments at oneplus.net," it said. "PayPal is still available, and we are exploring alternative secure payment options with our service providers."
Visa will make signatures optional for chipped credit cards
It's been about a month since American Express and Mastercard decided to stop requiring signatures for EMV chip credit cards. Now Visa is joining their ranks, making signatures optional for chipped transactions in North America.
Forever 21 breach exposed customer credit card info for months
If you shopped at a Forever 21 store this year, there's a chance your credit card information may have been stolen, CNET reports. The retail store confirmed this week that between April 3rd and November 18th of this year, a number of point of sale terminals at stores across the US were breached. While it hasn't provided any numbers on how many customers were affected, Forever 21 did say that in most cases, card numbers, expiration dates and verification codes, but not cardholder names, were obtained by hackers. However, in some cases names were also obtained.
