Steve O'Hear writes:



It’s practically an identical pitch to Square, although iCharge looks to be slightly further behind. The self-funded company, founded by “experienced serial entrepreneurs and experts from the credit card industry” sometime in 2009, will run a limited trial with select retailers this summer. A wider launch isn’t scheduled until the third quarter of 2010. Square on the other hand is currently in private beta and plans to launch in early 2010.



The begin using iCharge, merchants will need to purchase the smartphone-compatible card reader and register with the iCharge service. Credit cards can then be swiped and the card info is sent to the connected iPhone/Android application.





A big part of iCharge’s pitch inevitably centers around security. All data transfers utilize SSL encryption,and credit card numbers are checked against a database of known stolen credit cards. And in the future, iCharge says it will integrate further safety features, such as “buyer name and image verification via social networks, as well as storing the GPS location where the transaction took place”, thus providing more protection for the retailer.



But who’s going to protect buyers?



All of this democratising credit card processing technology may seem great but consider this:



"Put a fake Square or iCharge device in the hands of a rogue trader, and a card reader attached to a phone running the ‘open’ Android OS seems like a fool-proof way to clone somebody’s credit card.



Just a thought.