Mastercard

MasterCard Inc., the second-biggest payments network, said it's investigating a potential breach of account data and that card issuers and law enforcement have been notified. Data may have been targeted at a "U.S.-based entity," and MasterCard's own systems "have not been compromised in any manner," the Purchase, New York-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. It didn't specify how many accounts may have been affected. "The incident is currently the subject of an ongoing forensic review by an independent data-security organization," it said.

Presale tickets for the culinary event Le Grand Fooding are now on sale. The event will take place April 26 and 27 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and will feature some of the best chefs in Paris and Los Angeles, including Nancy Silverton, Josef Centeno and Roy Choi.  The chef lineup on April 26: Choi of the Kogi empire, Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand in Paris, Centeno of Baco Mercat and Bar Ama, Gregory Marchand of Frenchie in Paris, Jean-François...

Visa, Mastercard and major U.S. banks agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by retailers who accused them of price fixing. Retailers had alleged in a lawsuit that the two largest payment networks conspired with banks to fix fees they charge retailers for processing customer credit-card transactions. The dispute began in 2005, when merchants accused the companies of violating antitrust laws  by fixing the swipe fees, which average about 2% of the purchase price.

Maybe you don't rely on your credit card to cover supplemental auto insurance when you rent a car, but should you? It depends, mostly on what card you use and what type of vehicle you rent, according to a recent study of four top credit cards. CardHub.com found that travelers could save about $10 to $20 a day on car-rental insurance if they use the automatic coverage that comes with their credit card membership. The report says another study found that 24% of consumers aren't sure whether their credit cards provide such coverage.

MasterCard Inc.andVisa Inc.warned Friday that some of the data in their cardholder accounts may have been breached. The companies don't directly issue credit cards - they process card transactions for the banks that do. MasterCard said that it had notified banks - as well as law enforcement - of a potential problem with a third party, “U.S.-based entity.” An independent data security organization is conducting a forensic review, MasterCard...

High gas prices are starting to slide , but that doesn't mean I would turn down a gas card that comes with my room. Many hotels have made such offers this summer, and now the Expedia travel website has jumped in with gas cards up to $50 for  purchases made with MasterCards. The deal: The Gas Money Bonus rewards those who complete their Expedia travel purchase for selected hotels and packages by using MasterCard. You get a $25 gas card for a two-night hotel stay or air-hotel package and a $50 gas card for three or more nights.

MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. warned that some of the data in their cardholder accounts may have been breached. MasterCard said that it had notified banks, as well as law enforcement, of a potential problem with a third party "U.S.-based entity. " An independent data security organization is conducting a forensic review, MasterCard said. The company's own systems haven't been compromised. Visa said the same. "MasterCard is concerned whenever there is any possibility that cardholders could be inconvenienced and we continue to both monitor this event and take steps to safeguard account information," the company said Friday in a statement, without specifying how many cards might be at risk.

Federal regulators reached a deal last week with Visa and MasterCard over how the credit card giants treat merchants. That might seem at first glance like the kind of thing that doesn't affect ordinary consumers. But it could have significant implications for how you shop and the prices you pay at the cash register. "It could give consumers the best deal possible, instead of what banks would like to see charged," said Pamela Banks, senior policy counsel at Consumers Union. The federal government's proposed settlement, which still requires approval by the U.S. District Court in New York, followed a two-year Justice Department investigation into rules imposed by credit card issuers that prohibit merchants from steering customers toward payments with cash or checks that avoid transaction fees.

A group of automated-teller machine operators sued Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., the country's largest payment networks, accusing them of fixing ATM access fees. The lawsuit sheds light on how the banking system collects fees from consumers. In the last month, consumers have been demonstrating their outrage at new debit-card fees, among other new charges levied by banks this year. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the Visa and MasterCard violated antitrust laws by forcing independent machine operators to accept anti-competitive contract terms.

It took one simple mistake for Hector Xavier Monsegur, a hacker who goes by the name Sabu, to get caught by the FBI. That mistake led not only to his arrest but also to that of five other alleged hackers who, according to a grand jury indictment, have ties to high-profile underground groups online: LulzSec, AntiSec and Anonymous. The indictment filed in a U.S. District Court in New York ties the arrested men to online attacks against Sony, Fox, PBS, the Central Intelligence Agency, Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.

Now that retailers have made the peace with credit card companies, allowing them for the first time to pass along processing fees to consumers, can we expect higher prices at the cash register? In California, at least, the answer is no. State law prohibits retailers from tacking on an extra fee for using plastic (although discounts for paying in cash are hunky-dory). "Credit card companies can change their rules, but they cannot change California law," said Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for state Atty.

Most small-business owners regarded the rising fees they paid to Visa and MasterCard as an unavoidable cost of doing business. Not Irvine photo processor Mitch Goldstone. Contending that a price-fixing cartel was exploiting him and other entrepreneurs, Goldstone went to war in media interviews, blog posts and as a lead plaintiff in a giant class-action lawsuit, comparing the payment processors to drug pushers and to the railroads that profited at the expense of farmers. What Goldstone calls his "Erin Brockovich moment" arrived with last week's $7.2-billion settlement with Visa, MasterCard and the banks that issue their cards after seven years of antitrust battles in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y. The agreement will shift power to sellers of goods and services and could transform how - and whether - millions of Americans use their credit cards.

Visa, Mastercard and major U.S. banks agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by retailers who accused them of price fixing. Retailers had alleged in a lawsuit that the two largest payment networks conspired with banks to fix fees they charge retailers for processing customer credit-card transactions. The dispute began in 2005, when merchants accused the companies of violating antitrust laws  by fixing the swipe fees, which average about 2% of the purchase price.

Visa Inc.andMasterCard Inc.agreed late Friday to pay retailers $6 billion to settle a price-fixing lawsuit that alleged they overcharged companies billions of dollars in credit-card transaction fees. The agreement is believed to be the largest settlement ever of a private antitrust case, according to lawyers for 7 million American merchants who sued the card companies in 2005. The total value of the agreement is $7.25 billion, counting a temporary reduction in card fees. The deal is a big victory for retailers, which have long chafed at having to pay "swipe" fees of 2% or more every time a consumer uses a credit card to buy anything from a pair of flip-flops to a pickup truck.

A hacker Tuesday claimed to have stolen 50 gigabytes of information from 79 banks over the last three months. The hacker, whose Twitter handle is Reckz0r but who also goes by " Jeremy " according to a PasteBin post, posted a text file of his hacks that contained a portion of the data he claimed to have stolen -- enough, he said, to prove he isn't kidding. Within that text file are details from 1,700 individual Visa and MasterCard credit cards accounts, according to ZDNet . The details posted by Reckz0r includes people's names, card types and both their postal and email addresses.

Data from up to 1.5 million credit and debit cards from all major card brands, including MasterCard, Visa and Discover, may have been stolen in a data breach at processing firm Global Payments Inc. But so far, the company does not know of any fraudulent transactions on infiltrated accounts, said Chief Executive Paul  R. Garcia in a conference call with analysts on Monday. The hack was confined to North America, he said. And while card numbers may have been swiped, the company said in a statement late Sunday that cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers are safe.

Maybe you don't rely on your credit card to cover supplemental auto insurance when you rent a car, but should you? It depends, mostly on what card you use and what type of vehicle you rent, according to a recent study of four top credit cards. CardHub.com found that travelers could save about $10 to $20 a day on car-rental insurance if they use the automatic coverage that comes with their credit card membership. The report says another study found that 24% of consumers aren't sure whether their credit cards provide such coverage.

Presale tickets for the culinary event Le Grand Fooding are now on sale. The event will take place April 26 and 27 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and will feature some of the best chefs in Paris and Los Angeles, including Nancy Silverton, Josef Centeno and Roy Choi.  The chef lineup on April 26: Choi of the Kogi empire, Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand in Paris, Centeno of Baco Mercat and Bar Ama, Gregory Marchand of Frenchie in Paris, Jean-François...

MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. warned that some of the data in their cardholder accounts may have been breached. MasterCard said that it had notified banks, as well as law enforcement, of a potential problem with a third party "U.S.-based entity. " An independent data security organization is conducting a forensic review, MasterCard said. The company's own systems haven't been compromised. Visa said the same. "MasterCard is concerned whenever there is any possibility that cardholders could be inconvenienced and we continue to both monitor this event and take steps to safeguard account information," the company said Friday in a statement, without specifying how many cards might be at risk.

Those footsteps you hear are the sound of some hacker or identity thief potentially making off with your personal information. MasterCard says it's investigating a possible security breach related to a third-party vendor and has alerted banks and law enforcement officials. Some reports identify the vendor as Global Payments, which processes credit-card transactions. As many as 50,000 MasterCard and Visa cardholders may be at risk, according to some accounts of the breach.