The Green Sheet Online Edition
October 27, 2025 • 25:10:02
News Briefs
Five indicted over refund scheme leveraging POS glitch <- click to read full story
A federal grand jury in Miami returned a 22-count indictment against five men, Michael Jerry Phanor, John Ngotho, William Lopes, Armani Amado and Henry Nunez, for orchestrating a nationwide payments fraud and money-laundering scheme exploiting a glitch in POS systems that enabled bogus refunds.
According to charging documents, the group leveraged "split-tender" purchases (two debit cards for one purchase), then manipulated the refund process by allowing the first card to be credited while delaying or subverting the second card refund (wrong card, incorrect PIN or feigned bank calls), triggering repeat refund logic and issuing multiple credits to the first card.
Don Apgar, of Javelin Strategy & Research, posited the operation was likely an inside job, targeting one or a few retail chains using the same POS software. After refunds hit immediately via new real-time payout rails, the conspirators withdrew funds quickly; law-enforcement traced at least $1.5 million in fraudulent credits. The scheme spanned dozens of locations including Miami, Tampa, New York, Chicago, Phoenix and Southern California. Some of the defendants flaunted luxury lifestyles online under the moniker "Money Grows on Trees."
Consumers put security over speed in payments, Vyntra finds <- click to read full story
A study from transaction-intelligence firm Vyntra revealed that consumers prioritize trust, resilience and transparency over speed in payments, challenging common industry assumptions that frictionless, ultra-fast transactions are paramount. The survey of over 1,000 adults in Europe found that 66 percent prefer security over transaction speed, and more than half welcomed additional verification steps if they improved safety.
On resilience, eight in 10 respondents said they'd consider switching providers after repeated outages; more than half expect downtime to be less than one hour per year, indicating near-zero tolerance for service disruptions. Transparency also ranked high: 90 percent said it's important to understand how providers safeguard funds and data.
Joel Winteregg, Vyntra's CEO, stated that fraud prevention and operational reliability must be combined rather than treated separately. The study underscores that while instantaneous settlement retains value, consumer loyalty increasingly hinges on reliability, governance and visible safeguarding of funds and data. Researchers noted it is clear that real-time capability isn't the sole differentiator; trust and resilience are equally crucial.
Payments revenue growing, fostering new opportunities <- click to read full story
According to Boston Consulting Group's 23rd annual global payments report, global payments revenue is projected to expand from approximately $1.9 trillion in 2024 to $2.4 trillion by 2029. While growth will moderate to about 4 percent annually over the next five years, the industry is entering a "foundational reset" driven by agentic AI, digital currencies/stablecoins, fintech disruption, real-time A2A payments and cost-transformation imperatives.
Latin America is expected to lead growth at 7.9 percent per annum, while North America trails at 3.4 percent. Payments-focused fintechs posted 23 percent annual revenue growth and accounted for $176 billion in revenues last year. Real-time A2A volumes rose 40 percent globally in 2024, now representing about a quarter of digital retail payments and exceeding 50 percent in markets like Brazil and India.
The report emphasizes that growth will come less from traditional levers and more from integrating new technologies into business models, transaction flows and operating platforms.
Holiday shoppers to spend over $250 billion online <- click to read full story
Consumer online spending in the United States for the holiday season this year is forecast at $253.4 billion, up 5.3 percent year-over-year, according to Adobe Inc. Analytics. Ten days this year are projected to exceed $5 billion in daily online sales, up from seven days last year. Cyber Week will drive 17.2 percent of total online spending, roughly $43.7 billion.
Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day, expected at $14.2 billion, while Black Friday is projected at $11.7 billion. Mobile devices will dominate, accounting for 56.1 percent of the total ($142.7 billion) with an 8.5 percent increase. BNPL is expected to account for $20.2 billion, including $1.04 billion on Cyber Monday and $761.8 million on Black Friday.
Electronics, apparel and home goods will drive more than half of purchases, while groceries and cosmetics will show strong growth. AI traffic to retail sites is expected to rise 520 percent compared with 2024, and social-media-attributed revenue is forecast to grow by 51 percent YoY.
Card processing execs plead guilty to fraud scheme <- click to read full story
A long-running fraud case involving veteran executives of Electronic Transactions Systems Corp. concluded Oct. 6, 2025, when defendants pled guilty and agreed to forfeiture of $7.63 million after a three-year saga including two mistrials.
The original indictment (July 2022) accused ETS principals, under President Edward Walsh Vaughan, of defrauding merchants from 2012 to 2019 via undisclosed fee markups, misleading contract disclosures and hidden processing charges. One victim, the City of Sherman, Texas, triggered the investigation.
Vaughan and key accomplice Hadi Akkad were eventually charged with money-laundering conspiracy. Vaughan personally received $107 million from ETS's 2018 sale to Elavon; Akkad received $33 million. Under the plea deal, Vaughan forfeited more than $5 million, Akkad nearly $2 million, and each paid $100,000 fines. Sherman received $34,184 in restitution. The case highlights how hidden interchange markups and opaque contracts still pose systemic risk for merchants.
Payment fraud spawns online insecurity, new survey finds <- click to read full story
A survey of 13,000+ adults across 13 countries, conducted for Mastercard Inc. by The Harris Poll, revealed consumers feel more vulnerable online than they do in the physical world: 70 percent of respondents said securing their digital information is harder than protecting their home. Cyber-crime now generates an estimated $9.5 trillion annually and is ranked worldwide as the third-largest economy.
The survey found 76 percent of participants more concerned about cyber risks than two years ago; more than half said they think about online security weekly, more often than job security.
Eighty percent reported they received at least one scam attempt in the past year. Gen Z and Millennials in the study were more likely to fall for scams and less likely to use traditional protective actions, despite higher confidence in their ability to detect threats. Johan Gerber, Mastercard's global head of security solutions, warned that trust cannot be an afterthought; organizations must weave security into every technology layer, or risk failing in the digital economy. 
This article contains summaries of news stories recently posted under Breaking Industry News on our homepage. For links to these and other full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/breakingnews.php.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact information, links and other details may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
