TeachStreet, the Seattle-based online community dedicated to matching teachers and students as well as providing teachers with the online tools to manage a private teaching business, has introduced a new payments feature.
Powered by PayPal Website Payments Pro, the TeachStreet e-commerce platform allows for credit card payments for a series of classes available for students. Teachers must include a listing and a profile in order to gain access to the online platform, which offers data and analytics, such as the number of visits and views, number of sales leads from e-mail messages, phone calls and site-visits.
TeachStreet currently offers over 135,000 classes and teachers, across almost 700 subjects and categories. The service charges students 5 percent for booking, while teachers must pay 4.9 representing the processing fee. Website Payments Pro allows merchants to accept payment directly on their website or by phone, fax and mail and customers to pay with all major debit and credit cards as well as PayPal balance and bank transfers. [24×7]
Microsoft Retail Stores to Scrimmage against Apple Mac Store Field Positions wIth former Apple Playmaker
Microsoft plans to mirror Apple Computer’s successful brick n’ mortar retail playbook, not by copying the X’s and O’s, but by enlisting the guidance of the retail architect and lease plan architerct whow drew up Apple Computer’s shopping center and storefront coverage in the first place.
Former Apple real estate chief George Blankenship, who helped lead the natonwide march of the Mac stores’ rollout, has been hired by Microsoft as a consultant as Redmond gets set to extend its flagship brands to new retail locations, many in field goal range of Mac store franchises.
Is it only a season or two until we see the consuemr tech counterparts of Like Hertz, Avis, Budget and others flanking airport counters or drive-thru kiosks wherever fine digital products are sold? [24×7]
Microsoft Sues to Stop Windows Live Messenger Spam
Microsoft on Thursday filed a lawsuit against a Hong Kong company, alleging the business spammed and phished thousands of its customers over instant messenger (IM).
The action, filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle, contends that Funmobile Ltd., which is operated by brothers Christian and Henrick Heilesen, sent “spim” to customers over the Windows Live Messenger platform, Microsoft officials said in a blog post.
As reported in Secuty Magazine, the scheme, which started in March, involved sending users a link that appeared to come from a friend, said Tim Cranton, associate general counsel of internet safety enforcement at Microsoft, in the blog. If users clicked on the link, a page popped up requesting they enter their username and password to login to IM.
If they complied, victims then were directed to an adult website, Cranton said. Meanwhile, the fraudsters used the stolen credentials to access the IM accounts, where they bombarded those victims’ contacts with similar unwanted messages.
“Such abuse of the Windows Live Messenger service harms Microsoft and our customers by burdening Microsoft’s computers and computer systems with spim traffic, interfering with users’ enjoyment of our services and invading the privacy of our users,” he wrote. “Our customers should be in control of their information and shouldn’t be provoked into divulging their personal account credentials for third-party services.” [24×7]
