Technology

While consumers hunt for deals during the holiday online shopping frenzy, fraudsters are doing the same — using the credentials they've hoarded from any number of data breaches the past year.

The holidays are approaching, and mobile is going to play a bigger role in e-commerce than ever before. Last year, mobile holiday shopping traffic surpassed desktop for the first time and retailers are expecting even higher mobile traffic this year.

Amazon.com is big enough to try things that other retailers would find too risky. Over the years it has developed many groundbreaking payment technologies and revolutionized e-commerce, but not all of its ideas have done well.

WorldRemit app users can now send funds to any bank account in Vietnam, as the money transfer provider expands into Southeast Asia.

The U.S. is a long way from widespread adoption of EMV, but security analysts say the boom in online shopping—plus a surge in consumers' use of mobile devices for holiday purchases—will make it easier for fraudsters to hide their moves as they redirect their efforts from retail to online channels.

Mobile payment users are still in short supply, and the growing range of options may be seen as too chaotic for consumers who haven't yet used a mobile wallet.

Apple Pay has reportedly made plans to launch in China by early February.

To counter the rising rate of e-commerce fraud, U.K.-based myPINpad plans to provide a virtual PIN pad for mobile-generated online transactions through the VocaLink network for the next five years.

ShopKeep's most recent survey of its 20,000 merchant clients shows two mobile payment trends at odds with one another.

The volume of payment apps is reaching critical mass. From retailers to coffee shops to airlines, companies across virtually every industry have developed a mobile app to make the payments experience simpler and faster for their customers – and to gather more data on who they are and how they spend their money.