Prepaid cards

As shopping gets more digital, so does fraud. The rise in technology at shoppers' fingertips provides many new channels for scammers to exploit.

In an effort to crack down on consumer fraud, the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that it will ban telemarketers from using four payment methods that are frequently abused by scam artists.

Volkswagen AG's "goodwill gesture" of $1,000 worth of gift cards to owners of cars with engines that pollute more than the law allows is helping the company identify those autos when it comes time to fix them, Audi of America President Scott Keogh said Tuesday.

Gift cards don't seem like the coolest technology in the payments world, but new and reinvented digital gifting platforms are changing the conversation – by borrowing text-messaging staples like emoji.