Credit Cards Online Information

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1999 NOV 19 (NB). Shopping online could become much easier for people without credit cards under a new Internet automatic teller machine plan developed by Cash Technologies Inc. [NASDAQ:CHNG].

According to Cash Technologies Chairman and CEO Bruce Korman, credit cards inhibit much of the potential in the e-commerce market. "Today nearly half of the US population, and one-fourth of those who qualify, do not have credit cards," he said.

In order to turn these cardless customers into online spenders, Cash Technologies today announced that it has reached agreements with MP3.com, [NASDAQ:MPPP], an online digital music Website, and privately held Sensar Inc., a manufacturer of "iris recognition products," to begin a pilot project using ATM cards to purchase music products at MP3's Website.

MP3 customers participating in the pilot project will be able to use their regular bank ATM card to shop securely over the Internet at MP3's Website. The use of Sensar's iris camera attached to the customer's PC will eliminate the need to send personal ID numbers via the Internet, removing the key stumbling block that has prevented the use of ATM cards on the Internet.

Korman also pointed out another possible advantage that this system has over credit cards, saying that "credit card and password fraud has victimized millions of online shoppers."

The pilot project for MP3 customers will begin during the first quarter of 2000. Participating customers will enroll at an iris- enabled ATM supplied by Diebold Inc. Thereafter, when the customer is ready to purchase products from MP3's Website, a small hand-held camera manufactured by Sensar, which plugs into the customer's PC, will take a picture of his or her iris and return the encoded information to MP3 over the Internet.

MP3 in turn will pass the information on to Cash Technologies' EMMA system to authenticate the customer and process the transaction through the ATM networks.

An approval is returned by EMMA to MP3 within seconds, the customer then can receive the requested MP3 product in the usual way. According to Cash Technologies, as far as the customer is concerned, the process is virtually as fast and as simple as using an ATM.

MP3 is particularly pleased with the pilot project's potential, since, according to MP3.com President Robin Richards, "Credit card penetration is particularly low amongst the teenage population despite their tremendous buying power."

Sensar anticipates that eventually the inexpensive hand-held cameras, which also can double as "Web cams" or video conferencing cameras, could be distributed by banks, e-commerce providers, online securities trading firms and even built into computer monitors.

Korman told Newsbytes that initially, Cash Technologies would pay for the cost of the cameras attached to the individual PCs. In the future, he expectes that the cameras would be available at virtually no charge, the cost being born by the online merchants who want to reduce credit card fraud at their sites. Korman also said that if the cameras were not made available for free, he expects the retail cost of the camera to be below $100 when manufactured in quantity.

# posted by Medical Information : 6:06 AM