The Sydney Morning Herald reports today on the VCard imitative in Australia to help tackle Internet fraud and to provide consumers with more confidence to shop online. Although having limited distribution at present, the VCard acts as a pre-purchase voucher that can then be used anywhere that accepts Visa card payments.

The article reports on market research by Forrester last April that found that 7.2 million Australians were online shoppers and forecast that that figure would grow by an average of 22% a year until 2010. In addition, a recent online shopping survey by ACNielsen found that "distrust in releasing credit card details" was the most common barrier to shopping on the Internet. It is therefore hoped that the new VCard will limit the exposure to fraud online and can also be used by those who might not otherwise have access to credit cards to pay for items online.