In a security survey asking why people complete their shopping online, 73 percent of respondents cited saving time as the primary reason. Shopping online can so easily be completed from a smartphone or tablet that its prevalence is rapidly increasing.

One report expects e-commerce revenues to more than double between 2012 and 2018. With identity theft cited as the Federal Trade Commission’s top consumer complaint for 13 years in a row, people have valid reason to be concerned about entering credit card numbers, addresses, and other personal information into a website form. There are, however, ways you can decrease your risk.

The whole US credit card security system is deeply flawed – that’s the problem. In essence, the hardcore tech stuff for Apple Pay works fine: no one is breaking TouchID, stealing iPhones to pay for stuff, or hacking the NFC transmission protocol. Rather, the flaw lies in credit cards themselves.

People are buying credit-card numbers online, then loading those same numbers into Apple Pay, in essence making themselves a handy fake credit card, without going to the trouble of making a physical fake. Most problematically, it's easy for hackers to steal credit-card numbers from shops and then sell those numbers online.

Earlier we wrote a lot about different skimming techniques, different ways of compromising bank cards, and flaws in new secure credit cards that lets hackers steal money.

Now let’s talk about the less apparent dangers that run the risk of remaining unnoticed by the majority of users. We will relate stories about risks attributed to cross-border payments, as well as some inherent flaws found in payment systems. Many think that indicating a CVV code is necessary for processing any online transaction. However, some online shops provide an opportunity to avoid this step, and do not transmit the secret code to a payment gateway.

Visa wants to put an end to those annoying calls you sometimes get from your bank when buying things online or far from home. The credit card company will roll out a new feature that allows cardholders to automatically let Visa know where they are using the location services built into nearly every smartphone.

The optional service will match up the coordinates of the smartphone with the location of the sale to more accurately predict instances of credit card fraud. To set up the location tracker, Visa has made deals with card-issuing banks to add the option to their mobile banking apps. Over time, the location service will plot out a home range with a radius of about 50 miles.

Have you already bought all of your Christmas and New Year gifts and booked holiday tickets and hotel rooms? I’ll bet my boots that many have not yet completed all of these tasks and now spend their spare time performing a last minute ‘great holiday quest.’

It’s very important to keep calm in order to avoid becoming the victim of a holiday phishing campaign. In 2014, up to 51% of people in the UK and Germany bought gifts online, and even more interact with vendors via different online channels (websites, e-mails, social networks) in order to make a choice, get discounts or receive comprehensive data about their goods. 

As banks and retailers are barreling toward a 2015 deadline to replace magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards with more secure cards that come embedded with a microchip, researchers have announced a critical flaw in the card system. 

The card system fails to recognize transactions made in non-UK foreign currencies and can therefore be tricked into approving any transaction. What’s more, because the cards allow for contactless transactions, wherein consumers need only to have the card in the vicinity of a reader without swiping it, a thief carrying a card reader designed to read a card that’s stored in a wallet or purse could conduct fraudulent transactions without the victim ever removing their card.