Three Florida men were arraigned following their arrest Feb. 9, 2009, for an alleged spending spree using fraudulent credit card numbers tied to the Heartland Payment Systems Inc. data breach. Heartland disclosed the breach in January 2009 shortly after Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide informed the company of suspicious activity associated with transactions it processed.

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According to business and e-commerce attorney Holli Targan, some ISOs and processors are now offering payment card data breach insurance programs to their merchant customers. Data breach, or cyber liability, insurance typically covers losses incurred by a merchant due to fines imposed by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide and issuing banks' card replacement costs. It also protects companies against most forms of hacking, data theft or privacy violations. But by offering this insurance to merchants, ISOs may be unwittingly subjecting themselves to state insurance regulation.

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To increase attendance at the Southeast Acquirers Association's 2009 Annual Conference, the SEAA will feature its first job fair. All of the 75 vendors exhibiting at the three-day event will be available to talk to job seekers about prospective opportunities at their companies. Among the companies scheduled to participate are American Express Co., Comdata Corp., First Data Corp., Global Payments Inc. and at least two dozen industry recruiters.

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The Electronic Transactions Association and payment consultancy The Strawhecker Group recently released the first edition of the US Economic Indicators report. The quarterly is designed to compile and explain a broad range of data to help payment professionals understand the financial environment in which they operate. "The motivation for us was obvious: Things are pretty tough right now, and it's really important to pay attention to the big picture in terms of the entire economy," said Thomas Goldsmith, ETA Communications Director.

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On Jan. 30, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of New York deemed unenforceable a provision in American Express Co.'s card acceptance agreement. This ruling reversed a 2006 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that upheld an AmEx contract clause requiring merchants to waive class action litigation. Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Rosemary Pooler said that to enforce the clause would "grant AmEx de facto immunity from antitrust liability by removing the plaintiffs' only reasonably feasible means of recovery."

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As unemployment rates soar and consumer spending shrinks accordingly, payment processors report that e-commerce chargebacks stemming from friendly fraud are increasing significantly. Friendly fraud is committed when a consumer who wants to escape liability for payment claims a valid credit card transaction was unauthorized. And it isn't just online businesses that are damaged by cardholder fraud. Banks and other financial services providers, the card brands, payment processors and call centers are also prime targets for card fraud, whether it's from friendly fraud, skimming, phishing or identity theft scams.

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John Goodale, Director of Business Expansion, TSYS Europe, said in an interview with SellingPrepaid that although the European prepaid market has developed quite differently from the U.S. market, U.S. players have learned from Europe's successes and failures. According to Goodale, the overall European prepaid market is less developed in comparison to its U.S. counterpart. Many factors have hindered the expansion of prepaid programs in Europe, including language barriers, cultural differences and geopolitical issues.

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