Now PayPal Is Everywhere MasterCard Is

PayPal is offering a new way for customers to pay on sites that don't normally accept the service. PayPal Secure Card creates a new MasterCard number for every transaction and retrieves members' payment information from their PayPal accounts. "From a merchant's perspective this looks like any other MasterCard transaction," says a PayPal exec. "And it's just another PayPal purchase to the customer."

The service offers increased fraud protection in an effort to help curtail phishing—fake emails trying to trick people into giving up their financial information. Secure Card has been tested by 3 million PayPal users in the last year and becomes available to all US customers today. "It just makes shopping easier and safer," said a PayPal official. (More shopping stories.)