Place your bets with prepaid

Every day, players in the prepaid card industry make gambles, that merchants and consumers will adopt their new products and services, and that they won't be part of the next big breach. There is a little bit of both in the 1305A edition of SellingPrepaid E-Magazine.

First, one of the biggest fraud schemes involving prepaid cards was apparently busted by the U.S. Department of Justice in New York. A two-pronged attack that spanned continents and involved two foreign banks reportedly resulted in a $45 million breach.

Next, SparkBase Inc. recently integrated its Paycloud rewards engine with Apple Inc.'s Passbook mobile wallet. The move is all about convenience for the Cleveland-based gift and loyalty network operator.

Prepaid fraudsters busted

On May 9, 2013, a New York division of the U.S. Department of Justice reported the arrest and indictment of seven individuals behind a large and sophisticated fraud scheme involving prepaid cards that netted the fraudsters $45 million. According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, the cybercriminals hacked into the prepaid card processing systems associated with two foreign banks to manipulate withdrawal limits on prepaid accounts and hit ATMs in 26 countries with fake cards encoded with payment data from the stolen accounts.

SparkBase finds convenience with Passbook

ISO-focused gift and loyalty network operator SparkBase Inc. integrated its Paycloud rewards engine with Apple Inc.'s quick response (QR) code-based Passbook mobile wallet. While the move may not be affirmation of Passbook's relevance as the mobile wallet of the future, it indicates the importance SparkBase places on convenience in the mobile channel.

Prepaid in brief

A concise, up to the minute update on what is happening in the prepaid world.