The payments & online selling stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Mississippi investigators showed off a cyber crime lab that tracks card skimmers, cracks locked devices and now faces AI apps that harm children.
Read more: Inside the Mississippi Attorney General's lab that tracks online crimeReign, a payments company, is now offered to WooCommerce stores, giving subscription sellers more control over checkout and which company processes each payment.
Read more: Online store owners get new tools to run their own paymentsVisa, BILL and Billtrust are testing AI agents that log into supplier sites and pay approved invoices, which could save finance teams time and speed up payment.
Read more: Visa tests AI helpers that pay your business invoices for youA consumer advocate says companies use personal data to set prices, and New York's governor has until year end to decide on a ban.
Read more: Stores may be charging you more based on what they know about youVisa is testing AI software that pays supplier bills for businesses, which could save time but raises questions about control and mistakes.
Read more: Visa is testing AI software that pays business bills on its ownWildfire Systems and Badge are linking 50,000-plus merchants to Apple, Google and Samsung wallets, so cashback offers and store alerts may soon show up there.
Read more: Store cashback offers are coming to your phone's wallet appMastercard demoed an AI agent making nine payments to two companies on its own, within a budget a person approved. Business owners may soon need spending rules for software.
Read more: Mastercard shows AI assistants paying for services on their ownSecNews.gr published a 10-point checklist for spotting fake online shops, which copy real stores to take your payment and card details.
Read more: How to spot a fake online shop before you payYahoo Finance warns that safety checks on AI shopping tools may lag behind fraudsters just as holiday buying picks up, so shoppers and stores should prepare now.
Read more: Holiday fraud season is near, and AI shopping helpers may not be readyUPS-owned Happy Returns is now built into TikTok Shop, giving shoppers a way to send items back with no box and no printed label.
Read more: TikTok Shop adds easy returns with no box and no labelButter Payments, which helped companies fix failed subscription payments, was sold in September. The buyer is unknown, and the news matters if you sell subscriptions.
Read more: Butter Payments, a subscription payment fixer, has quietly been soldPayPal's new CEO says slow decisions held the company back. He plans to fix that and put more focus on consumer money features, including Venmo.
Read more: PayPal's new CEO says the company moved too slowly and is changing thatA new Medium series explains why a fraud-spotting AI can score 98% on accuracy and still catch none of the fraud. Here is what to ask before you trust one.
Read more: Why an AI That Is 98% Accurate Can Still Miss Every Fraud CaseTikTok Shop's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale runs Nov. 11 to Nov. 30, and Best Buy, Ulta Beauty and Sephora are selling there for the first time.
Read more: TikTok Shop opens its biggest holiday sale on Nov. 11 with major retailersThe US Payments Forum will devote its fall meeting to AI agents that shop for you, raising questions about who pays when software makes a mistake.
Read more: AI shopping helpers are about to change how payments workA new LexisNexis study says each $1 lost to fraud costs U.S. financial firms $5.47 overall, up from $4.00 in 2021, and customers may feel the extra security.
Read more: Every $1 lost to fraud now costs U.S. banks $5.47 in totalAn Arizona real estate agent is speaking out about AI-powered property fraud, which can fake documents, voices and listings. Here is how to protect a home deal.
Read more: An Arizona real estate agent is fighting AI-powered property fraudA new report says fake online stores now look polished and run paid ads, so a shop that seems real may not be. Check it before you enter card details.
Read more: Fake online stores now look real, just in time for the holidaysA survey finds 21% of UK 18 to 24 year olds say their bank account was taken over, against 2.1% of people 65 and over. Scam warnings should reach every age.
Read more: Young Brits report far more bank account hijackings than older adultsWrongly declined cards and clunky checkout checks may cost online shops far more than fraud does, according to a payments consultant writing in The Paypers.
Read more: Shoppers want online card security they never have to noticeNew research says 69% of students have met a scam, nearly double the general public. Mastercard, NatWest and the Home Office are teaming up to help.
Read more: University students are twice as likely to meet a scam, new research finds
