Later, Foursquare and AMEX extended those deals, even launching them across the pond.

Now, Foursquare is making a move to expand these offers to more types of plastic.

The company has announced that they will be extending these types of specials with both Visa and MasterCard, and most debit cards to provide similar check-in offers alongside participating businesses.

Foursquare is working with payment solutions company First Data and CardSpring to expand the seamless specials.

The AMEX/Foursquare deal has morphed over time to start producing more revenue for Foursquare, and the company says that the new deals with Visa and MasterCard will earn them a fee for every offer redeemed. It’s unclear whether that will be a flat fee per offer claimed or some sort of percentage deal.

“This is going to be a pretty core part of our revenue model going forward,” said Foursquare Product Manager Noah Weiss.

According to AdAge, the first offer that should be available today involves $1 off for $10 spent at 8,000 participating Burger King locations.

Since this is going to be a “core part of the revenue model,” it shouldn’t surprise you that Foursquare is also making these credit card deals more prominent within the app.

All you’ll have to do is sync your Visa, MasterCard, or AMEX with your Foursquare account to start earning cashback on purchases made through the app.

MasterPass includes checkout services for merchants, and connected wallets for users.

“Every device is becoming a shopping device,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard. “MasterPass brings together all of the ways we pay for things, from traditional plastic cards to digital wallets, and gives consumers the ability to make a payment from wherever they are and with one simple experience.”

MasterPass will be integrated into mFoundry’s nearly 900 bank customers, integrating it into mFoundry’s mobile banking solutions, which have millions of customers.

“Consumers will now shop and pay in whatever way best fits their needs and lifestyles, from every device they have. MasterPass gives them the ability to make a payment from wherever they are, with one simple experience,” said Ed Olebe, Group Head, MasterPass Services, MasterCard. “Integrating with mFoundry’s solution embeds the power of MasterPass into an industry-leading mobile banking platform and enhances both the payment and banking experience for consumers.”

“Together, mFoundry and MasterPass deliver an outstanding customer experience by integrating mobile banking and mobile payments into one, seamless solution,” said mFoundry CEO Drew Sievers. “By bringing together both, financial institutions can transform their mobile banking experience and achieve the broader goal of turning mobile into their most valuable channel.”

MasterCard announced PayPass nearly a year ago, and says MasterPass is an evolution of it. mFoundry will create a digital wallet service using its APIs, and the service will be available early next year. Pilots are expected to launch later this year.

Starting today, Barnes & Noble will be giving away $20 gift cards to anybody who purchases a Nook HD or Nook HD+ using a Mastercard card. The offer is good online and in any of the retail stores around the nation. You will have to act fast, however, as the deal will only last throughout January 21.

Before you go running out to pick up one of Barnes & Noble’s acclaimed tablets, you might want to check if you have enough credit to cover the cost. The Nook HD, which features a 7-inch screen, comes in two varieties – 8GB and 16GB. The former will set your credit back $199 while the latter goes for $229. The Nook HD+ comes in at 9-inches and features a 1080p display. The 16GB device retails for $269 while the 32GB device retails for $299. Buying any of these with a Mastercard card will net you the $20 gift card.

So, why is Barnes & Noble offering a Christmas-like deal in January? It’s very simple really. The Nook didn’t have a very good holiday season, and Barnes & Noble is obviously trying to drum up demand for its tablet. The only flaw in its plan is restricting the deal to Mastercard users. Hell, it would be a bad idea to restrict it to any credit card purchases as most consumers are now in the process of paying off their credit card debt left over from the holidays.

Still, it’s a neat little promotion for those who prefer Nook to the Kindle Fire HD or the Nexus 7. The latter of which just received a T-Mobile version for those who want to take it on the go.

“This is a huge step on our way to increase mobile payments,” said Thomas Kiessling, chief product and innovation officer for Deutsche Telekom (pictured above with Ann Cairns, president of international markets at MasterCard). “With MasterCard we have a well-known and experienced partner generating growth in this important market segment. We want to build a comprehensive ecosystem around mobile payment, helping Telekom to realize its strategy of being the first choice for customers regarding connected life and work.”

The roll-out of the service will begin in Poland later this year, with Germany following soon after. The initial trial for the technology will use mobile phone tags and cards before a full-on mobile wallet service rolls out in the first half of 2013. The mobile wallet service will be open to issuing banks and partners other than MasterCard.

It seems that NFC technology is finally going to take off in the West, and not just for making payments. There are rumors that the next iPhone will have built-in NFC. Though high-end Android smartphones have had NFC capabilities for over a year, it could take the might of Apple to push the technology forward to popularity.

He then released the information minus several critical aspects including card number, security code, and expiration date. The message was posted via Pastebin on the 18th of June.

Reckz comments in his Pastebin post about the bank hacks and the release of information:

“Today’s target is VISA & Mastercard, I will be only leaking a portion of the credit card information, as I cannot leak the entire data, it’s too large, and this is the certain proof that i’ve hacked into VISA & Mastercard….”

“I’m also censoring the credit card information such as CC Number, Secret Code, Expiry date for security measures, I also edited the way the information will look, the original one looked bullshit.”

He further explains that his purpose for hacking the banks involves good old fashioned curiosity rather than some malicious intent. He also claims to have no special talents, just passionate curiosity.

He mentions Chase Bank as one of the institutions he infiltrated, but suggests there are several more involved. ZD Net speculates the hacks could be related to a credit card security breach that occurred in late March where big banks sent out letter to customers that a security leak may have compromised their information.

According to another message on Pastebin from Reckz posted on the 12th of June, he is retiring from the hacking business, realizing he has no real purpose for his unusual skill. He says he will use his talents for only good purposes from here on out.

Reckz comments on his retired status:

“I’ve realized that I am doing this shit for nothing.”

“I am officially..a whitehat.”

“I will use my intelligence for good.”

“I’ve done over 50 large hacks, and leaked many essential information, I am sorry if I harmed you, or affected your families.”

“This is my departure from the hacking scene.”

In his post from yesterday, he reminds us that of the purpose for his hacks; all in the name of curiosity and challenge. What I have to wonder is whether his latest hack falls in line with his new mission to use his hacking prowess for only good. Perhaps he hopes to reveal to the general public just how antiquated bank security really is.

If he doesn’t have any overarching goal or message, and his hacks are just for curiosity sake, he probably should retire. He really doesn’t, “fulfill your (our) ‘lulz’ attention with some excitement & entertainment!”, as he suggests.

Visa and Mastercard are most likely very interested (and probably Chase Bank as well), the general public however, doesn’t really care. Find something more exciting to do, you bore me Reckz.

According to the Moscow News, the company is working with Internet Retail Solutions (Irsol) on branded MasterCard cards that will be available in Russia on June 4. Irsol said that they will print out 100,000 cards and then will determine if there is enough demand for more cards to be printed.

This, once again, falls into Rovio’s new found push to move away from a “video game only” business approach, and more into a multimedia approach. They have a theme park, have acquired new studios, and have a movie/cartoon in the works. They seem to really want to capitalize on the Angry Birds name and good public opinion while they still can to build a better brand.

Picture courtesy of Promsvyazbank

Users of PayPass Wallet can log the information up to 25 different credit cards to consolidate payment information, in one safe and secure place. Similar to Google Wallet, PayPass Wallet also incorporates NFC (near field system) technology to where users can “tap” their mobile devices during checkout at over 500,000 stores that have already installed the system. Also, third party vendors can create payment systems under their own brands using MasterCard’s system, and shipping information can likewise be stored for easy access.

PayPass Wallet Services is made up of three components:

PayPass Acceptance Network: The PayPass acceptance network includes both online and contactless payments, and gives merchants a consistent way to accept electronics payments across multiple channels. NFC payments can be made in-store by tapping your mobile phone, and a new PayPass online element lets you check out at a retailer by clicking a PayPass button – automatically providing your shipping and payment information to a retailer without having to fill that information out each time you pay.

PayPass Wallet: PayPass wallet enables banks, merchants and partners to white label their own wallets. Consumers can store payment and shipping information in one secure place including American Express, Discover, Visa and other branded credit, debit and prepaid cards.

PayPass API: The PayPass API allows partners to connect their own wallets into the PayPass network, and lets those partners user MasterCard’s check-out, fraud detection and authentication services to allow their customers to make purchases wherever PayPass is accepted.

Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments office, MasterCard, states, “We think of MasterCard’s mission as using technology to make payments safer, simpler, smarter and this is just one of the ways we’re progressing against that mission – We realize that when it comes to payments, no single wallet will rule them all. PayPass Wallet Services simplifies the shopping experience while providing flexibility and choice to merchants, banks and consumers.”

PayPass Wallet Services will become available to partners in Q3 2012, initially in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, with other countries following.

In related news, MasterCard has recently said that it’s pretty sure NFC technology will be included with Apple’s iPhone 5.

On March 30, Global Payments Inc., a credit card processor based in Atlanta, confirmed unauthorized access into its processing system. The company believes that 1,500,000 card numbers may have been stolen, but that cardholder hames, addresses, and social security numbers were not taken. Having had multiple information security and forensics firms investigate the incident, Global Payments believes it to be contained.

“We are making rapid progress toward bringing this issue to a close. Our nearly 4,000 employees around the world are focused on providing exceptional service. We are open for business and continue to process transactions for all of the card brands,” said Global Payments CEO Paul R. Garcia.

Global Payments provides electronic processing for merchants, Independent Sales Organizations, financial institutions, government agencies, and corporations. It processes credit and debit cards, purchasing cards, gift cards, and electronic checks.

There is no word yet on any progress finding those responsible for the data theft. What might be done with the stolen data is unknown. Global Payments also did not make any recommendations for consumers whose card numbers may have been compromised.

The alerts began going out late last week, but the actual security breach happened between January 21 and February 25 of this year. Banks were told that “full Track 1 and Track 2 data was taken,” which is enough information to counterfeit new credit cards.

Only MasterCard is speaking out so far. “As a result, we have alerted payment card issuers regarding certain MasterCard accounts that are potentially at risk,” the company said to NewsCore, according to the New York Post.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a MasterCard spokesperson said, “MasterCard’s own systems have not been compromised in any manner.”

VISA has not issued any statements, and there is no word yet on which card processor was compromised. Krebs stated that banks are analyzing transaction data to determine any commonalities in purchased made on the compromised cards.

From the Krebs article:

Sources at two different major financial institutions said the transactions that most of the cards they analyzed seem to have in common are that they were used in parking garages in and around the New York City area.

It’s not clear how many cards were breached in the processor attack, but a sampling from one corner of the industry provides some perspective. On Wednesday, PSCU — a provider of online financial services to credit unions — said it alerted 482 credit unions that appear to have had cards impacted by the breach, and that a total of 56,455 member VISA and MasterCard accounts were compromised. PSCU said fraudulent activity had been detected on a relatively small number of those cards — 876 accounts — and that the activity was geographically dispersed.

Yesterday I shared an infographic on the largest hacking scandals in the past decade. Financial institutions must be hoping this latest one is dealt with swiftly and with a minimum of disruption to the financial industry.

(via Krebs on Security)

Part of the reason for that expansion, he said, is the technology’s penetration into the smartphone market. McLaughlin insisted that “I don’t know of a handset manufacturer out there that isn’t in the process of making sure their stuff is PayPass ready.” When pressed on whether that included Apple, McLaughlin would only repeat that there aren’t any handset manufacturers not working on the technology.

Though still in its early days, the technology is becoming increasingly common in the smartphone market. Google Wallet, a system designed for Android phones with NFC technology, stores users’ credit card data on their phones so that they can use them with NFC-based payment systems like PayPass. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which launched late last year, includes NFC, and the major mobile phone carriers are said to be working on their own mobile payment system much like Google Wallet (which, incidentally, is likely the reason Verizon blocked Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus when it launched).

More than two years ago we began hearing rumors that the iPhone 4 would have NFC. When the iPhone 4 launch came and went with no mention of NFC, it was thought that Apple might include it in the iPhone 5. In October the iPhone 5 was revealed as the iPhone 4S, and still NFC technology was notably absent. Now, of course, rumors are flying that the next iPhone will finally have the technology built in. Though hardly an direct confirmation, McLaughlin’s statements are strongly suggest that those rumors are correct.

[Via Fast Company]