Trafficking and smuggling counterfeit and pirated goods is a lucrative business hurting America, its companies, and citizens, according to a May 2019 report from the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition). The illegal activity continues to remain profitable and thrive because those running the criminal enterprises operate in secret with anonymous entities that help them launder their fake...

Payment processing firm, Allied Wallet, its owner, and two other officers recently settled charges that they participated in many schemes in which they knowingly processed fake transactions to customers’ accounts. Allied Wallet, its owner and CEO, Ahmad Khawaja, its chief operating officer, Mohammad Diab, and its former vice president of operations, Amy Rountree, agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s...

In another move to protect itself from potential liability and financial punishments, Alphabet’s Google recently changed its content policy on its app store, banning apps on that facilitate the sale of marijuana or related products. The move was necessary because the laws concerning marijuana use and sale vary considerably among states and on the federal level. This approach allows app...

The operators of a worldwide negative option scam admitted to deceptively promoting “risk-free” trials and then, charging the consumers full price for the items and enrolling them in long-term, automatically-renewed product plans without their consent. A court order resolving the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint requires the defendants to no longer engage in this type of scam and pay more than...

Though some believe blockchain technology can rescue businesses from chargebacks and ecommerce fraud, it may not completely solve the problem. True and friendly fraud hurt all businesses, especially mobile and online merchants. Unauthorized use of credit cards triggers cardholders to implement chargebacks, resulting expensive refunds and other penalties for businesses. As blockchain technology evolves, merchants can expect it to reduce...

To improve the customer experience, companies have been leveraging technology to stimulate consumers’ senses through sound, light, and biometrics. Digital voice assistants, like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant answer questions, play songs, and place orders but some believe they have much greater potential. Juniper Research’s whitepaper, The Digital Assistants of Tomorrow, which was released in February, predicts that the...

Visa’s new platform, known as Visa Next, allow issuers and issuer processors to build and test new products. Visa’s clients and partners can gain access to the recently-launched platform through Visa Next. This is Visa’s website that is promoted as a “new destination” for learning about and using new solutions in the payment player’s ongoing pipeline. The platform has beta...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved final consent orders in two cases in which the companies allegedly falsely claimed their products were made in the United States. Background on the Companies A New York-based company, Patriot Puck, wrapped its hockey pucks in American flags. Though they were mostly manufactured in China, the company promoted them as the “The Only...

An alleged Apple’s facial recognition software failure may cost the tech giant a pretty penny. An 18-year-old New York man is suing Apple for $1 billion, claim its facial recognition software wrongly accused him of stealing $1,200 worth of merchandise from its stores. Ousmane Bah, a student, claims someone used a stolen identification card to pass himself off as him....

China’s recent move to list all fentanyl-related substances as controlled drugs may be a game-changer in the United States’ battle against opioid addiction. The move came following President Trump’s criticism that China allows synthetic opioids to be shipped to the United States. The U.S. continues to battle an epidemic of opioid-related deaths. Closing the loophole will prevent Chinese drug traffics...