Israel is taking hacking quite seriously after a hacker with the name “OxOmar”, said he had posted 11,000 credit card details online Thursday. This was also behind him saying that ”greatest Saudi Arabian hacker team” posted details of a whopping 400,000 credit cards earlier in the week.

Israel said that they “will respond to cyber-attacks in the same way it responds to violent “terrorist” acts, by striking back with force against hackers who threaten the Jewish state.”

Hacking continues to be a problem for countries and companies with various movements such as Anonymous and also hackers focused on exposing information for personal financial gain, such as what happened with the over 400,000 credit card details.

The good part is that despite the leak of such information, Israel’s three largest credit card companies reported only 6,050 of the 11,000 exposed being affected and just 14,000 of the 400,000 had been exposed.

Cyber attacks are starting to be viewed as a terrorist act and whenever you throw that word around, the consequences can become even more serious. Granted, no one is being killed in the process, but that doesn’t matter in the eyes of the government.

With that said, if the hacker “OxOmar” along with these supposed Saudi Arabian hackers are caught, they could face some serious jail time and won’t be touching a computer for a long time, that’s for sure.

“Hackers stand warned, Deputy Foreign Minister Dany Ayalon said. “They are putting themselves in danger and that they will not benefit from any immunity against reprisal actions from Israel.” Cyber-attacks amount to “terrorism that must be treated as such. In cyberspace, we have active capacities and we can hit those who try to hit us.”

Israel To Hackers: “We’ll Respond The Same Way We Do To Terrorist Acts” is a post from: The Inquisitr

T-Mobile customers who are willing to upgrade their Smartphone or cell phone to a 4G device may soon be able to receive a free Square credit card reader with their upgrade.

Also featuring discounted service rates the new 4G offering is meant to target business users who can benefit by offering mobile credit card payments from their Square card reader and accompanying 4G smartphone.

While Square is a relatively new credit card services provider they recently made huge strides by having their credit card reader places in thousands of retail locations including nationwide Best Buy and Target stores.

If you’re unfamiliar with Square the small dongle from the device plugs into a Smartphones headphone jack through a 3.5mm jack, allowing credit cards to be swiped and charged via iOS and Google Android based devices.

Last year the Square service processed an estimated $2 billion in transactions for which Square earned a flat 2.75% flat fee per transaction which is added to each card payment. The company’s service can also be used with receipt printers and cash drawers to create a truly functional mobile experience.

Along with their 4G upgrade T-Mobile is also expected to bring back unlimited talk, text and data for $70 per month with the signing of a two-year contract.

This could be a big win for T-Mobile and Square if enough business customers find the deal appealing. Are you willing to upgrade your current phone to a 4G Smartphone if it comes with a Square reader and lowered pricing plans?

T-Mobile 4G Smartphone Upgrades To Receive Square Card Reader is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the effects of the 2008 financialocalypse are still being felt rather broadly, it doesn’t seem the overall credit crunch put Americans off credit card use all that much in the long term. (Or maybe people are still making ends meet for the time being using plastic.)

While the end of that year- 2008- saw more users relying on debit than credit cards, it seems the latter has picked up in a big way going in to 2012. (Protip: If the Mayans were right, we won’t even have to pay off credit card bills.) Credit card processing service First Data- which sounds like a rather subprime credit card lender itself- has spilled the beans to the media about America’s increasing reliance on credit, and credit card use has, according to the company, risen steadily in each quarter above the previous ones. The spike was 8.2% in the first quarter, 9% in the second quarter and 10.6% in the third quarter, the company disclosed- compared with rises of 9.6%, 8.3% and 5.9% for debit cards in respective quarters.

Perhaps even less surprisingly, credit card use was even more notably up on the one day Americans seem to honor the plastic god above all others- Black Friday. Credit card use for the retail orgy was up 7.4% over the same day in 2010, versus debit cards, which were only up 3.4%. Senior VP at First Data Silvio Tavares said that Americans have felt less of a squeeze financially, and soon resorted to their old credit card use habits in the spring:

“Credit is back in favor… Consumers have spent the last couple of years de-leveraging and reducing credit card use, but during the past month- and since April [2011] — they’ve been using their credit cards more and are starting to return to pre-recession buying habits.”

Have you broken out the plastic once again in late 2011? Do you think Americans learned anything from the crashes and over-leveraging that marked the mid-to-late 00′s?

[Image]

Credit Card Use Up Nearly 10% in 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new report on UK credit card users reveals that debt is being paid off more slowly by consumers than at any point in the last two years. In an even more concerning sign, more British credit card holders are using their credit cards to get cash advances than at any time in the same period.

These damning statistics come from FICO, whose report covers ‘classic’ credit card accounts established in the last five years. This category of card does not include premium cards, student cards and credit cards issued in Ireland.

FICO’s vice president and managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Mike Gordon says:

“The combination of flat spending on classic cards with lower payment percentages and higher cash usage indicates increasing strain on consumers’ wallets.”

As the Eurozone continues to limp along unconvincingly and youth unemployment in the UK hits new highs each month, it’s hardly surprising people are borrowing faster and repaying more slowly.

The grim news doesn’t stop there: the latest figures from the Bank of England reveal people in the UK collectively owed 56.9 billion on their credit cards in September 2011. In all, Britain is shouldering 208.6 billion of unsecured debt – that means credit card borrowing makes up nearly 30% of all debt that isn’t secured on property.

And to top things off, shameless bigots like this inhabit the country (NSFW):

… though admittedly that’s an unrelated issue.

Credit Card Debt Being Paid Off Slower Than Ever in UK is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well I gotta admit that I never saw this one coming but apparently panhandlers in some part of the US is going all high tech and accepting mobile payments using Square to accept Visa, Mastercard, or DiscoverCard donations.

As the post at The Next Web relates it this one homeless gentleman who goes by the name “Madwhite” has been just raking in the money; almost four times his normal daily panhandling take, because people can’t use the old “I have no cash” excuse.

Once they swipe their credit card, he even lets them know it’s a tax write off! And the best part for Madwhite? Once he has your information, he’ll email you to let you know what corners he’ll be frequenting next. If you’re lucky enough, maybe he’ll even shoot you a text.

Gotta love ingenuity eh.

Even panhandlers are going high tech thanks to Square [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

UK adults are so stretched financially because of the rising cost of living that 26 percent (or about 13 million people) say they instantly get stressed or worried whenever they receive a bill.

According to MoneySupermarket.com, the rising cost of bills for utilities and credit cards has led to increasing consumer worries on how they will pay every month.

Of those who feel stressed and worried about opening their bills, 54 percent said the biggest cause was the simple fact that bills just keep rising which means they struggle to know what they will be and how to deal with them.

Nearly a third or 31 percent of those worried say they panic because they have more money going out of their current accounts than they have coming in every month.

‘Bill Phobia’ is a concern now among Brits as 20 percent of those who are stressed when they receive a bill said that they actually delay opening and paying their bills because they are too afraid to tackle them.

Psychologist Donna Dawson commented on the rise in Bill Phobia amongst UK adults:

“It is human nature to want to avoid bad news and this is why people will put off opening bills. However, this can set up a vicious downward spiral whereby delaying the opening of bills can lead to not opening them at all, or even to throwing them away. This whole cycle of behavior is based on not feeling in control. The solution is to decide to take control right away and this includes a change in attitude in which you ‘anticipate’ what is coming, and ‘work out’  beforehand in your mind what you will do when it arrives.”

How about you? Do you scamper away when you see the postman about to deliver your bills? I do.

‘Bill Phobia’ Affects One in Four Brits is a post from: The Inquisitr

American consumers are once again adding tons of credit card debt to their lives, according to a recent report American’s added $18.4 billion in debt during the second quarter of 2011, numbers that haven’t been seen since 2008 and a 66% over debt accumulation compared to the same period of 2010.

According to credit card research firm CardHub.com compared to 2009 consumers added 368% more debt in 2011 then they did in 2009′s Q1.

While the debt load is higher than recent times the actual amount of outstanding credit card debt is down by 18% from $972 billion in 2008 to $792 billion in 2011 according to Federal Reserve numbers.

If current trends continue American consumers are expected to rack up $54 billion more debt than they did in 2010.

In a maneuver that should have predatory lender opponents worried much of the recent debt is being generated by consumers with “so-so” credit now that credit card company’s have a better idea of the governments direction following final approval for the CARD Act and “swipe fee act.”

Debt card company’s have also attempting to nickel and dime their customers more thoroughly with debit card fees and the removal of many debit card rewards programs which has pushed many consumers back into using credit cards over their banks debit card offerings.

There is one good sign given current debt levels, consumers may be using credit more openly once again but they are also defaulting less than they did in the past and they are making on-time monthly payments more regularly.

Do you think credit card using consumers are allowing their debt get too far out of hand once again?

Credit Card Debt On The Rise Again is a post from: The Inquisitr

Smartphone manufacturers are making a big push into digital wallets but the cost to consumers and merchants could lead to higher prices at the register and less protection for consumers.

Services currently offering or preparing to offer digital wallet products include Google, PayPal, OboPay, Square and FaceCash among others and while most of those services do not directly charge customers (other than Obopay) they do bring extra costs to merchants.

In some cases the cost of doing business increases when digital wallets are used, for example PayPal and Square charge merchants up to  2.75 and 2.9 percent per transaction, far more than charged by the average bank card. As more merchants begin to offer payment processing from those company’s the margin typically found in items may need to be increased to make up for profit loss, causing the cost of items to increase.

In other cases customers could pay out of pocket, for example Obopay charges consumers a flat fee of 50-cents for payments over $10 that are taken directly from their Obopay account, while a fee of 1.5 percent is charged if an Obopay customer has directly linked their credit or debit card to their Obopay account.

One in four Americans in a recent survey say they have found unauthorized charges, billing errors and other issues on their credit and debit cards, issues that may be harder to resolve as our smartphones become a commonplace form of payment transactions.

Consumers could also face issues with direct-to-phone bill charges since rights for that area of credit are not defined at this time by lenders and are controlled solely by wireless carrier contracts, according to a new study no wireless carrier provides protections for mobile payment transactions that are as strong as laws regarding direct credit card or debit card purchases.

It’s important for Smartphone users to realize that their protections under Digital Wallet agreements may fall far short of their current card purchases using the traditional credit card method and therefore it’s important that terms of service agreements are fully studied before users take advantage of digital wallet products.

Smartphone Warning: Digital Wallets Could Increase Prices, Leave Consumers Without Basic Protections is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ve been watching the Blippy scandal unfold, but Steve has been pretty vigilant about pointing out why credit card related social networking might just be the worst idea ever when it comes to social media and sharing.

Almost comically, just like naysayers feared, we discovered last week that the credit cards of some Blippy users were searchable in Google. And the entire internet didn’t hold back with the “I told you so” posts. It was pretty obvious up front that the potential problems that could result from sharing your credit card transactions online outweighed the completely non-existent benefits.  Does anyone really need to know you’re buying tampons on your lunch break or that your consumption of Ben & Jerry’s has skyrocketed since your boyfriend friended some random chick on Facebook?

To Blippy’s credit, they were pretty upfront about it in a blog posting about Blippygate. They start out by saying they are “very sorry” and go on to disclose exactly how the information wound up in Google search results. They outline a five step plan including hiring a Chief Security Officer to prevent future credit card leaks.

While Blippy is working to address the issues of security that surround their business model, it seems that current users might drift away and anyone who had thought about signing up might be wary now. And since we now know exactly why sharing your transactions with your internet acquaintances is a bad idea, does anyone plan on starting now? If you used Blippy, did you find any benefit, and do you see yourself continuing to use the service?

Blippy addresses credit card leak, you want to give it a try now? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier I posted about how some credit card numbers of Blippy users were discovered using nothing more than a simple Google search. Well Paul Boutin over at VentureBeat has some updated news and according to Philip Kaplan, Blippy co-founder, it’s not as bad as it seems.

Below is the email Paul received from Philip on the matter

“Today someone discovered a Google search that displays the credit card numbers of 4 Blippy users.

“We take security seriously and want to assure Blippy users that this was an isolated incident from many months ago in our beta test, and doesn’t affect current users.

“While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for those few people who were affected, and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks.

“Here are the details:

• Say you buy lunch at Quiznos.  Your credit card statement shows a complex entry like “Quiznos Inc Store #1234 San Francisco.”  But Blippy cleans this up to only show “Quiznos.”  We refer to these as the “raw data” vs the “cleaned up data.”
• Raw data is typically harmless.  But it turns out that some credit cards (4 out of thousands in this case) show the credit card number in the raw data.  For example, “Quiznos Inc Store #1234 from card 4444….”
• Many months ago when we were first building Blippy, some raw (not cleaned up, but typically harmless) data could be viewed in the HTML source of a Blippy web page.  The average user would see nothing, but a determined person could see “raw” line items.  Still, this was mostly harmless — stuff like store numbers and such.  And it was all removed and fixed quickly.
• Enter Google’s cache.  Turns out Google indexed some of this HTML, even though it wasn’t visible on the Blippy website.  And exposed 4 credit card numbers (but a scary 196 search results).
• We’re working with Google now to remove Blippy from their cache, and they inform us it will be completed within a couple of hours.

“While we take this very seriously and it is a headache for those involved, it’s important to remember that you’re never responsible if someone uses your credit card without your permission.  That’s why it’s okay to hand your credit card over to waiters, store clerks, and hundreds of other people who all have access to your credit card numbers.

“We’re making efforts to bolster our security to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.  That includes third-party security audits, and in general being a lot more careful before new features are released, even if it’s during a small, limited beta test period.

“Thank you for reading.”

While it is great that Blippy is on top of this and working with Google to get that information out of their search index it doesn’t change my opinion of the service one iota.

Blippy credit card snafu – UPDATED is a post from: The Inquisitr

I will be right up front here. I.Do.Not.Like.Blippy.Period.

I personally think it is one of the stupidest ideas to come out of the Internet’s Web 2.0 self-absorption of sharing. The fact that people are willing to share their purchase information with the rest of the world, or at least to those on Blippy is mind-numbingly stupid.

So when I saw the post today at VentureBeat that the credit card numbers of Blippy members could be searched for the first thing I did was IM my buddy Sean P. Aune about it and then we both sat back a laughed our ever loving asses off. The only small consolation is that it appears that it is only members of Blippy with Citibank issues MasterCard credit cards that are showing up in search results.

So how is it done?

Well as in all things search and Google, it’s pretty simple. The search string goes something like this: site:blippy.com +”from card” and hit the search button. For which you get back something like this graphic that VetureBeat provided

VentureBeat has contacted Citibank and Blippy founders as well as a few people whose numbers turned up in the search. This can be considered an developing story and one that we need some serious answers to. Congrats to the VentureBeat team on a great post.

Hey Blippy users – did you know your card numbers are on Google? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Mophie Credit Card scanner may just be the perfect solution for mobile business users looking to charge cards on the spot, without the need for very much additional hardware or for users to scan their cards on mobile sites.

While full details haven’t been revealed at this time, it appears that the unit will feature a hardware scanner built for iPhones that protrudes from the bottom of the users phone, cards can then be scanned and used in whatever fashion Mophie comes up with (iPhone API restrictions considered).

Mophie will officially reveal the unit at CES 2010 next week in Vegas where we’ll be in attendance and take a closer look. [Gizmodo via SlashGear]

Mophie Credit Card Reader For iPhone Gets Spotted is a post from: The Inquisitr

The U.S. Senate has begun hearings to investigate the behavior of three big online companies behind online loyalty programs. The three companies: Vertrue, Webloyalty, and Affinion, have generated more than $1.4 billion through misleading programs that duped consumers into paying monthly fees on their credit cards.

Web retailers that signed deals with these companies to run these loyalty programs earned a total of $792 million. Small companies could see payments of around a million dollars and larger companies earned in the tens of millions of dollars.

Senate investigators launched their six-month inquiry by examining complaints from people who discovered mysterious charges on their credit card bill. For years, Web shoppers have complained that they were signed up to some Web loyalty program without their knowledge and were charged fees until they discovered the problem and complained. Some paid fees for years.

The government says the investigation shows that Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue “trick” consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. A Web ad, which many consumers say appears to be from the retailer, offers them cash back or coupon if they key in their e-mail address.

Source: cnet News

Additionally the government’s report shows that the companies involved know full well that the majority of people signing up for the programs were unaware of the hidden costs to be charged on their credit cards. This is because the programs are designed from the ground up to be misleading.

The government investigation will continue into next year.

3 companies made $1.4 billion by misleading online shoppers is a post from: The Inquisitr

I realize there are stupid criminals out there after all we see them on half hour TV shows all the time I think this one has to rank up there as far as being a dumb idea.

Much like a robber trying to rob a bar where off-duty cops like to hang, the idea of someone putting a fake ATM machine meant to steal people’s information at this hotel where this year’s Defcon conference was held doesn’t show much in the way of smarts. That didn’t deter someone though as the conference goers found out when they noticed the machine that some said just didn’t look right.

As the conference was kicking off a few days ago, attendees noticed that at ATM placed in the Riviera Hotel, which plays host to the annual event, didn’t quite look right, according to a senior conference organizer who identified himself only as Priest. "They looked at the screen where there would normally be a camera," he said. "It was a little bit too dark, so someone shined a flashlight in there and there was a PC."

The ATM looked like a working system, but when people would put their cards in the machine, it would scan their card information and record the PIN numbers they entered. He didn’t know how long the ATM had been at the Riviera.

Conference organizers notified local law enforcement who hauled away the machine on "Thursday or Friday," said Priest, who said he works as a "civil servant" in his day job.

Source: Computer World :: Fake ATM doesn’t last long at hacker meet

The idiots may not have realized they were putting the machine into a hotel that would soon be the temporary home to 8,000 security professionals but given this is Las Vegas one would hope that it would have been found out in short notice.

Fake ATM at Defcon … not the brightest idea is a post from: The Inquisitr

People like to think that only on the Internet does one need to worry about companies watching everything you do and using that information in some way against you. Well I hate to be the one to break the bad news to you but this isn’t the case as credit cards companies have more data on you than anything found on the web. They can track your purchases, types of things being purchased, when you made the purchases and where you made them all within seconds of you buying something.

Most people don’t get overly concerned about this type of data collection when it comes to credit cards, debit cards, air miles cards or store cards. The problem is that during times of financial hardship that data is possibly being used to make decisions about your credit card worthiness. The idea behind this kind of profiling is that when you buy used clothing at thrift stores or do your shopping at those club superstores the credit card companies see this as a possible indicator of financial distress. Distress that could lead to missed payments or defaults.

These indicators are used by the credit card companies to decide whether to decrease your your credit limit as well as whether to increase your interest rates. American Express has already admitted to doing this kind of profiling but says that it has stopped the practice. This kind of thing has led to a new credit card reform law that has a provision requiring federal regulators to investigate if credit card companies are using the collected data in this type of profiling, leading to increased rates or decreased limits.

Stephens says the database’s purchasing information can provide a pretty clear picture of credit card users. "What do they know about you? Depending on how extensively you use your credit card, they conceivably have a very clear, distinct picture of an individual. It’s not only your retail purchases, but your online purchases. It can really paint a very complete picture. The stores that you shop at can paint a picture. You also may use it at a doctor’s office if you pay for care with a credit card. Some people pay for their utilities with credit cards."

Source: Connie Prater – WalletPop :: What You Buy Affects Your Credit

As they say in the post – cash is really the only privacy protector when it comes to your buying or bill paying habits.

Think twice about using credit cards at thrift or club stores is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ever wondered just how all those fraudulent credit cards are created and used? Well Detective Bob Watts of the Newport Beach Police Department will take you on a guided tour through the process. This is the operation that was run by Chris Aragon who was an associate of uber hacker Max Bulter who was profiled in this month’s Wired.

[hat tip to Threat Level]

Credit card fraud factory on video is a post from: The Inquisitr

The end of the month is coming and I’ll have a little bit of money sitting in my PayPal account but it leaves  me in a little bit of a quandary. Like, do I transfer some; or all of it, to my bank account so I can get that Christmas shopping down. If I leave some of it in my PayPal account then I am stuck dealing with the sometimes depressing online shopping experience.

It’s not always depressing; as buying digital goods is fairly simple and painless – at least it isn’t affected by one or more of my following suckage reasons. No – the real pain and agony comes when you head out to shop for non-digital type goodies. You know – those things like hardware, household stuff for the wife or those gaming consoles for the kids. The type of things that need to be paid for and then shipped.

In the spirit of online shopping and the holiday spirit here’s a list of the reasons why I think the whole experience really sucks sometimes.

1. Payment methods

This has to be the biggest bitch point I have with online shopping; but before you get your panties in a bunch let’s make a couple of things clear. Not everyone wants to buy digital goods. Not everyone in the world has a credit card. Not everyone in the world has a VISA debit card. Not everyone lives in the United States. So don’t even bother trying to get me going by bringing those points up in a comment.

There is nothing worse than finding just the right item that you want to buy only to find out that they only accept three major credit cards. What makes it even more maddening though is that you don’t find out until page 5 of their stupid ass payment form. Gee couldn’t you let me know that before you made me enter in all my personal information – guess not.

Then we have the famous VISA style bank debit cards or the virtual credit cards. Whoop-frikken-ee! First with the bank VISA debit cards – chances are if you don’t qualify for a VISA card you won’t for a VISA debit card. You might have a bank debit card but that won’t work. Then there is the fact that even if they accept a straight ordinary bank debit card it had better be one from the U.S. because I have yet to see anyone that accepts a Canadian bank debit card.

Then we have PayPal – but that is another whole separate point.

2. The Big Boys and wanting to pay with PayPal

The short of it is if you want to buy stuff from places like Amazon, the new Microsoft store (for that Xbox deal) or any of the really non-eBay retailers you are screwed unless you have a major credit card. Forget even thinking about paying with PayPal. It ain’t gonna happen.

That is one of the reasons that Amazon will never be an endpoint of online shopping for a lot of people. The other big reason comes later. I can understand to a point why considering that PayPal is owned by eBay that online retailers don’t accept it as a payment option; but it wasn’t always like that. Even before eBay PayPal has never been an option at Amazon and I’m sorry but that is just down right stupid. I can’t count the number of times that I have wanted to buy a book or other goods at Amazon but couldn’t because of this nonsense.

To me this is being exceptionally shortsighted and stupid

3. Geotarding what I can buy

Nothing pisses me off more than finding just the right item and entering all my payment information only to see – No shipping to outside of the U.S.

Screw you. I’m already going to get raped by any shipping costs as it is. If I’m willing to bend over a little further and pay outrageous shipping costs then damn well be willing to take my money and buy those goods.

I see this on Amazon all the time at any point you step beyond the bounds of book buying. If you want to buy that nice little trinket for the wife or maybe a a nice DVD player on sale – forget it if you live anywhere else but in the great United States.

In the Amazon example you can always head to your local geographical version (if there is one) but if that local Amazon site is anything like the Canadian one the pickings are pretty dismal. Where most people seem to make Amazon and other big names a regular stopping point I’m lucky if I remember Amazon even exists outside of any news that shows up about it.

4. Shipping outside of the U.S. – or how FedEx and UPS laugh all the way to the bank

I know everyone touts Amazon’s free shipping horn but here’s a hint. Not everyone buys from Amazon and not everyone lives in the U.S.

The moment there is a border to cross I can just visualize some FedEx or UPS executive eyeing up that new BMW or Mercedes purchase. In-country charges are bad enough but if I get something from the US I pray to all that is holy that it is getting shipped with GIFT splashed across the package. If it doesn’t then I suddenly am having to pay Custom Tariff Fees and then our lovely government gets in the act wanting their share and I have to pay taxes on what they think the item is worth. Suddenly that good deal just cost me an arm and a leg.

Even worse though in some ways is in-country shipping – especially when you are in the same time zone, the same province as where you are buying the goods from. Recently I bought a new mouse from TigerDirect in Canada – great service and I’m very happy with them – but when it came to figuring out how much I had to pay via PayPal I was suddenly faced with a $10.00 shipping fee. For a mouse .. a package that probably didn’t even weight a pound.

Then another time I priced out some RAM memory and again it was a great deal – except for the shipping. Again I was faced with a $10.00 shipping fee for something that fits inside an envelope. Please tell me how this makes sense.

That I think pretty well covers some of the ways that I think online shopping sucks. The things is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Retailers could stop being so myopic about how we can pay for those goods. Retailers like Amazon could easily support us paying by PayPal. In this day and age of the global village and global economy mentality we shouldn’t have to deal with geotarded products. As well we shouldn’t shafted the way we are for the shipping of goods that we buy; after all the more we buy the more that will need to be shipped (DUH!)

Do I think any of the above will change?

Not bloody likely.

4 Reasons why online shopping sucks is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the aesthetics are pleasing, Leslie Poston at Mashable isn’t hot on the service, and you can read her review here, but we thought we’d suggest another startup idea.

Introducing Better BillShrink.

(feel free to copy the idea, although if you turn it in to a startup, we want some equity ).

Here’s how it works

ZOMG I’ve got credit card debt. What do you recommended?

But the interwebs, how am I suppose to buy things online?

But I can’t afford to pay off my existing cards!

What about that shiny new gadget I want now but can’t afford?

Disclosure: this post does not equate to formal financial advice, nor am I licensed to give it. Consult with a financial specialist, psychiatrist, or Poker professional for better advice.

Better BillShrink, an easy idea for a startup is a post from: The Inquisitr