There is no doubt that electronic commerce is improving the way that we live our lives. Internet e-commerce provides a competitive global marketplace that makes it easier for buyers and sellers to connect with each other. This has a number of positive effects, including the creation of better products through increased competition, reduced marketing and administrative costs for merchants, greater accessibility, zero material costs and instant delivery (as in the case of some software), etc.
Unfortunately, along with the benefits of electronic commerce there are some serious drawbacks. Most notably of late are fraud and identity theft. As there is no face-to-face contact during Internet transactions, it is far easier for dishonest people to steal information or impersonate others. As anyone who has been a victim can tell you, quickly reacting to fraud is the single best thing that you can do if you become a victim. Timely reaction to the fraudulent charges offers you the best protection against long delays and investigations.
This article will review using two complementary Internet technologies, OFX and RSS, and will demonstrate how to provide credit card and bank transaction information in a single consolidated RSS feed. By watching a single feed one can quickly review transactions and rapidly respond to any fraudulent charges which might occur.
Requirements
This article makes use /n software’s RSS Component included as part of IP*Works! .NET Edition as well as the IBiz OFX Integrator. IBiz OFX Integrator for Microsoft .NET includes fully-managed components that support the retrieval of bank and credit card transaction information.
What is OFX?
OFX (Open Financial eXchange) is an XML standard for exchanging financial data between financial institutions and client applications. The standard was formed in the late 1990’s as a joint venture between several entities, including Microsoft and Intuit, as a way for their applications (Money and Quicken) to access financial accounts. The protocol allows clients to manage many aspects of financial accounts including the retrieval of transaction information, bill payment, bill presentment, etc.
