Fraud and data theft are constant risks for online retailers, and criminals keep changing their tactics. Fraud-prevention specialists are keeping up.

LOWELL, Mass. — For Litle & Co., payment processing is never a one-stop shop. Rather, the Lowell, Mass.-based company believes the biggest success comes from a long-term view of not only the data and analytics behind payments, but also an overall focus on the relationship between a marketer and consumer, from the very first transaction and on. And with a client list boasting some of the biggest names in direct response — including Guthy-Renker Corp., Savvier and Ontel Products Corp. — Litle & Co. obviously has the right idea.

Litle & Co.'s Jason Pavona joins Americas advisory board for the Merchant Risk Council.

Thank you to all who participated in Litle & Co.'s 2011 Client Conference!

When the California Supreme Court last month punished Williams-Sonoma for asking customers to reveal their ZIP codes, it sent many retail execs into a panic. Many assumed that they’d have to halt all requests for ZIP codes to avoid the cookware chain’s fate. Fear not. The law says you’re fine to ask consumers to zip away their codes, as long as you abide by some common-sense rules.

If you are an issuer of gift cards or other stored value cards in New Jersey, take note: new legislation set to take effect in that state will soon impose significant additional requirements affecting your sales and recordkeeping procedures. While implementation has been partially stayed by a preliminary injunction, other changes are currently scheduled to take effect on February 1st, 2011.

Online merchants are eager to capitalize on the growing popularity of mobile shopping - eBay research showed 60% of sellers are willing to adjust their eBay listings for easier viewing on mobile devices. But according to the National Retail Federation, 65.2% of U.S. retailers don't have a mobile-specific website. However, merchants can optimize their online product listings for mobile shopping searches.

By putting credit card details into vendors’ hands retailers can shield themselves from security risks. If a hacker can breach the data security protocols at the Federal Reserve Bank, as one did last year, just how secure is an e-retailer’s stored payment card data? It’s a question that e-retail executives say they lose sleep over.

That’s how much online merchants could gain in proposed lower costs for debit cards. Online retailers could reduce their costs by about $500 million a year as a result of the steep cuts in debit card fees proposed last week by the Federal Reserve Board.

The e-retailer says the move reinforced security and aided repeat customers. Online home furnishings retailer CSN Stores LLC added tokenization, a technology that changes consumers’ payment card information into randomized codes, to its payment security strategy last year and continues to integrate tokens into its business systems. The company, No. 61 on Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, says its prime motivation for adopting tokenization is that it gives the company another layer of payment security.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. agreed today to allow retailers to offer rebates to consumers who use a lower-cost payment form, for example, a debit card instead of a credit card, or a credit card that does not offer rewards and thus does not cost the merchant as much to accept.

Separating winners from losers in today’s business environment is determined in part by how earnestly a business thinks about creating value in its operations. As many small business owners know, looking for high benefit (value) and not low cost (commodity) can mean the difference between success and failure. What is often overlooked in this kind of analysis is the importance of choosing a quality, dedicated payment processing platform provider.

US-based payment processor Litle & Co has launched Litle Vault, an integrated tokenization service set to enable card-not-present (CNP) merchants to remove sensitive cardholder data from their systems without disrupting the integrity of their existing credit card transaction-based processes.

The 2009 LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud study contains a wealth of merchant-reported experience in the war against fraud in commerce. A common cause for concern among those experiences? Friendly fraud accounts for more than one-third of the total fraud for online-accepting merchants–or, according to the study, .4 percent of total annual revenue...

Online and mobile commerce is about to get a shot in the arm. Online payment service PayPal is opening the door to widespread use of credit and debit cards for so-called micropayments -- as small as half a buck and up to about $12. Instead of charging retailers for each separate card transaction they handle, the company plans to aggregate a merchandiser’s micropayments and levy a single fee for the bundle.

Friendly fraud now accounts for one-third of total fraud losses for merchants that accept online payments, according to Bob Botelle, executive vice president, merchant services, for payments management company Litle & Co.

More online shoppers are repudiating transactions even after they've received their merchandise, much to the chagrin of online merchants, which are focusing on the problem as they seldom have in the past. That's according to Robert W. Botelle, executive vice president for merchant services and chief customer officer at Litle & Co., a Lowell, Mass.-based processor of card-not-present transactions.

Forgive us if you already know this, but if you want to transact business via a website or over the phone–if you’re a direct response marketer, in other words–you need a way for customers to pay for your goods. In addition to a merchant account that allows you to accept credit and debit cards, you need a portal through which to enter the card number, a way to determine that the card is valid and a way to have the money transferred to your account after the sale.

It's too early to make a final judgment, but a Web-site design and hosting company serving 25 online fashion retailers says acceptance of Amazon.com Inc.'s new PayPhrase is doing one of the key things online retailers want a payment service to do?reduce shopping-cart abandonment.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that U.S. banks collected $45.3 billion last year from credit- and debit-card fees charged to merchants–about 75 percent came from interchange fees set by the two major card brands, Visa and MasterCard. Interchange fees, long a part of the card acceptance system, are the fees that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank”) pays the card-using customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) as cards are accepted for purchases.

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) is pleased to announce that several leading multi-channel and online merchants will be presenting at the MRC's Platinum Meeting and 2010 Annual e-Commerce Payments and Risk Conference at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort on March 16-18, 2010.