New York SBDC Research Network

From:  eMarketer.Retail The rollout of EMV chip cards in recent years may have deterred criminals from making fraudulent in-store purchases, but it hasn’t stopped them dead in their tracks. They simply found a new target: call centers. Call center fraud rates have increased steadily every year since at least 2013 and more than doubled between 2015 and 2016, according to an annual call center fraud study by the research lab of Pindrop, which helps financial institutions and retailers battle call-center fraud. It counts among its investors Google Capital and Citi Ventures. For retailers, so-called chargeback fraud is the most common: Criminals call a retailer, make a fraudulent purchase using someone else’s identity and credit card number, and have the product sent to another address. Loyalty cards also have surfaced as a major area of attack as criminals use them to cash out reward points, said David Dewey, director of research at Pindrop Labs, in an interview. The report...

If you think that the 21-cent swipe fee that bites into your profits each time a customer pays with a debit card is too high, you'll be pleased to learn that a federal district court judge agrees with you. The calculation of the amount was determined to be fundamentally flawed and the Federal Reserve Board regulations that established it were vacated—although the regulations remain in effect until a new fee structure is established. More info from Business Owner's Toolkit