The payments & online selling stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Square sellers can now update their Apple Maps listing from the Square dashboard they already use, which could save time for shops and restaurants.
Read more: Square sellers can now update Apple Maps from one dashboardOpenAI now caps paid ChatGPT accounts per device and card. Anyone juggling several subscriptions could be locked out and pushed toward costlier options.
Read more: ChatGPT now limits paid accounts per device and cardA Visa survey finds 54% of US adults have used AI for shopping, but only 23% would let it complete a payment. Here is what that means this holiday season.
Read more: More Americans use AI to shop for gifts, but few let it payA Visa-backed survey of Egyptian business leaders finds most are unfamiliar with AI that shops for you, yet most expect it to shake up their industry soon.
Read more: Most Egyptian firms still don't know what AI shopping agents areFedEx and Stripe plan to use your shipping activity to help judge small business funding requests, with a first product due in early 2027.
Read more: FedEx and Stripe Plan Loans Based on Your Shipping ActivityAI agents that can pick a product and start the payment are becoming practical, and businesses can set the limits. Early use is expected to be narrow.
Read more: AI shopping agents can now buy things for you within set limitsTikTok launched a restaurant guide called Must Eat and is reportedly working on payments, a sign it wants to be the app you use for almost everything.
Read more: TikTok is adding restaurant picks and payments to become an everything appJaipur Police say a suspected kingpin paid workers for ID papers to open bank accounts that moved about ₹24 crore in fraud and betting money.
Read more: Police say workers' ID papers were sold to run a fraud money networkA New Jersey radio host says a store manager told him card machines differ on purpose to slow thieves. It is one claim, not a confirmed reason, but holiday shoppers should slow down.
Read more: Why every card machine at the store works a little differentlyFake Apple Pay charge texts and calls from fake Apple Support are after your codes and money. Apple Pay itself has not been hacked.
Read more: Fake Apple Pay alerts are tricking iPhone users into handing over codesAn essay argues that as AI models become alike, the biggest long-term profits may go to whoever controls customers and payments, not to the labs.
Read more: AI may make less money for its makers than for those who control accessAI assistants and agents influenced 262 billion dollars in online sales over the 2025 holidays, so sellers now have to be readable by machines, not just people.
Read more: AI shopping assistants now influence one in five online salesFake Geek Squad invoices push you to call a number within about a day. The call can end with a stranger on your computer and real money gone from your bank.
Read more: Fake Geek Squad invoice emails want you to call a scam numberPayment firms that process shop sales across Africa are adding loans, supplier credit and stock tracking, and your sales history may decide what you can borrow.
Read more: African payment apps now want to lend to and run your businessSafaricom says fraud incidents fell 82 percent in its 2026 financial year, short of its 90 percent goal. Scams that rely on persuasion still lean on you.
Read more: Safaricom cut fraud by 82 percent, but missed its 90 percent goalSamsung says demand for memory chips will far exceed supply in 2027 as AI spending grows, which could keep prices up for phones, computers and online services.
Read more: Samsung says the memory chip shortage will get worse in 2027Mastercard says its new Pay with Rewards feature will make card points easier to spend, but banks, stores and dates have not been named.
Read more: Mastercard introduces Pay with Rewards to spend card pointsAs AI tools start shopping and paying for people, card disputes are getting harder to sort out. Sellers and buyers should expect new rules.
Read more: AI shopping agents are changing how card disputes get handledAmerican Express now lets certain Blue Cash and business cardholders move cash-back rewards into an Amex savings or checking account, with no minimum.
Read more: Amex lets you send card cash back straight into savingsProsecutors say eight people ran a fake-deli scheme that drained more than $7 million from food aid cards. Here is what happened and what SNAP users can do.
Read more: Eight charged in $7 million scheme to steal food aid from New YorkersRevolve now uses AI to build a landing page for each ad click. Spangle, the software maker, reports big sales gains in tests, though the numbers come from its own case study.
Read more: Fashion Retailer Revolve Uses AI to Build a Web Page for Each Ad ClickStripe ran $1 billion in its own vendor payments through Global Payouts and found that bad recipient details, not banks, caused most failures.
Read more: Stripe moved $1 billion in vendor payments to its own payout toolCUTimes asks whether AI could take over credit union work. Members may notice it first in chat help, loan decisions and fraud checks.
Read more: Credit unions weigh how far AI could take over their workMastercard, Flybits and Rogers Bank completed Canada's first AI agent purchase, and banks are building checks to make sure the agent really speaks for you.
Read more: AI shopping agents are starting to buy things for you, and trust is the hurdle
