Brian Daly
OnlinePaymentNews.com
From Ireland, the land of saints and scholars, and U2 :)
I have various interests and hobbies, but and most of them seem to be internet-related. Involved with computers and internet most of my career, and my very first computer was a 386, with a 20 Meg hard and 640 K RAM (huge in those days but dismal now). Those were the days when we built computers out of cast-iron :)
I now make my living full-time from the internet, working from home, writing for OnlinePaymentNews.com and other endeavors.
Brian can be reached at online payment news at brian@onlinepaymentnews.com
Zynga Share Prices Fall As Usage Declines
Share prices of Zynga Inc., the largest producer of social games on Facebook, fell to a record low recently. Customers are thought to be actively switching to mobile phones because it is so convenient to play the games anywhere and any place. Also the quality of the games is as good, if not better, when played on mobile phones. It is thought that this increased usage of mobile devices such as smart-phones is the main reason for the drop in revenue. Less revenue is generated from these than from customers who use a standard computer to play the games. An excerpt from a recent article: Shares of San Francisco-based Zynga [...]
PayPal To Be Available For Use On TV
In a recent announcement from EBay Inc., it will soon be possible to purchase goods and make transactions using your PayPal account and television remote control. PayPal will be joining with cable company Comcast Corp. and TV manufacturers TiVo Inc. Customers of these companies and services, who also have a PayPal acount, will then be able to buy goods, make donations, and other standard transactions from any of the interactive adverts that appear on the TV. This continues PayPal’s move to expand the range of options and choices available to theit customers. Here is an excerpt from the release: Starting as early as this fall, viewers with PayPal accounts will be [...]
Bitcoin Payment Network Expands Worldwide
BitInstant LLC recently announced that Bitcoins can now be purchased at ‘hundreds of thousands’ of retail stores across the United States, South America, and Russia. Using these new services, people can purchase Bitcoins and expect to have the digital currency available within the hour, which is a big improvement on the typical wait of up to two days prior to this. The main aspect of this is that it makes Bitcoins much easier to purchase now using cash. Credit and debit cards are not accepted, because of the dangers of chargebacks. which are not permitted in the standard user-to-user Bitcoin transactions. Here is n excerpt from the recent article: Using [...]
Western Union Join With Roshan To Enable Mobile Transfers In Afghanistan
Western Union, one of the leading international payments companies, have recently teamed up with Roshan in Afghanistan. Roshan is the largest communications provider in Afghanistan’s with almost 6 million subscribers. The result is that international money transfers can now be made directly to mobile phones wallets of Roshan customers across their network covering over 230 cities and towns in all of the country’s 34 provinces. This is of particular use in countries which have large numbers of Afghans living abroad, countries such as Canada and UAE. Money can be easily sent to families back at home using this method. Here is an excerpt from the recent article: Now, M-Paisa customers [...]
New Deal For Green Dot Brings Share Price Increase
Gren Dot, the dicount banking comany, have recently announced a new deal with retailer Dollar Tree Inc. This new deal will allow for Green Dot prepaid debit cards to be available throughout the 4,300 Dollar Tree retail stores. This brings the total number of stores where Green Dot products are available to about 65,000. Green Dot have also announced two contract renewals, one with Wal-Mart, and one with PayPal. Shares prices of Green Dot,which have been on the decline over the last year, have risen 6% shortly after this announcement. An excerpt from a recent article: Shares of discount banking chain Green Dot Corp. rose Monday after the company said [...]
MoneyGram Warns About Mystery Shopper Fraud
With the approach of summer, leading many students to search for summer jobs, the ‘Mystery Shopper’ idea has always been a novel way of earning some extra cash. The idea is fairly simple, get hired to go to certain stores, observe, make purchases, and then report back on the overall customer experience. And get paid as a result! Kim Garner, senior vice president of global security and investigations for MoneyGram, warns us to be careful about some Mystery Shopper opportunities that might arrive. A particular scam to be aware of is where you are hired to act as a mystery shopper, and receive a cheque which must be cashed first [...]
Zynga Announces Zombie Swipeout For Smartphones
Zynga, the social gaming platform, recently announced news about its upcoming new game called “Zombie Swipeout” for smartphone users. As part of the launch, paid actors, posing as zombies, have been ‘ghouling’ the streets, offering “blood drops” (popsicles promising the “fleshiest” ingredients) as incentives for the new game. The game is expected to officially launch during the next few weeks. The objectives of the game: have guilt-free fun slaughtering the undead, just don’t kill Joey, the good guy. Here is an excerpt from the article: “We love zombies,” said Zynga Mobile Germany studio director Matthias Hoechsmann, whose small startup gave the world the hit game “ZombieSmash” before being bought in [...]
PayPal To Be Utilised in ShopKeep POS
ShopKeep POS recently announced that they will include PayPAl as an alternative method of payment in their system. Point Of Sale (POS) is the term used to describe the system that takes place when consumers approach the checkout to pay for goods. POS systems usually incorporate both hardware and software. Software is installed in the till, and various hardware items such as bar code scanners, credit card card readers, etc., are connected nearby. The whole system is designed to make it easy for consumers to pay for goods, and offer choices about the method of payment. PayPal can now be included as one of these choices, at any store where [...]
Bitcoin Feared By FBI As Haven For Illicit Activity
An FBI internal report was recently leaked to the internet, raising concerns about the use of Bitcoin currency. Bitcoin is an online currency that allows individuals to buy goods, sell goods, and exchange money anonymously. This report, marked for Official Use Only but not marked classified, raises concerns about the fact that Bitcoin uses mainly a peer-to-peer network, with no central authority. Financial transaction history records are not easy to obtain in those circumstances, which makes it difficult to track certain types of activity, criminal activity in particular. Here is an excerpt from the article: The FBI sees the anonymous Bitcoin payment network as an alarming haven for money laundering [...]
European Court Rules Against Mastercard On MIF Fees
The European Union General Court in Luxembourg recently ruled to uphold a 2007 ruling that fees for cross-border card payments by MasterCard were anti-competitive (this ruling had been appealed by MasterCard). This new ruling is forcing MasterCard to stop charging merchants to process credit card transactions, fees known as multilateral interchange fees (MIFs). The EU General Court pointed out that such fees were not in use in other credit card companies, and were not required to ensure the viability of the MasterCard company. Hefty fines for MasterCard may be in line if they fail to comply. An excerpt from the recent article: The EU General Court has slammed MasterCard for [...]
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