If there is one thing to blame for the slow adoption of Internet commerce, it's the age-old credit card.
Many consumers are simply afraid to use it online.
And they have reason. A report released Monday by the European Commission revealed that credit card fraud ballooned last year by approximately 50 percent in Europe amid an increase in Internet commerce transactions. The study follows repeated news reports of hacked credit card databases and failed security at a number of high-profile Internet sites. However, new technologies that enable secure transactions on PCs, mobile phones and PDAs could help consumers warm up to shopping on the Web. Credit card companies have dominated e-commerce with their wallet sized plastic cards since the industry began just five years ago, slowly keeping up with new technology.