[nine_k]

It's over the Internet, because you're not going to run a dedicated fiber to every card reader. But it's not over the unprotected internet; your card reader will establish a VPN connection of sorts, or at least talk via an encrypted channel (think TLS) is you use e.g. a Square terminal.

Not that a random person can hit these endpoints, unauthenticated, and try to run a transaction.

[salawat]

Correct. In point of fact, payment cards/merchant networks are quite literally just that. You get a credential, and that credential can be revoked if you get up to something sufficiently heinous to warrant the ostracizing.

People would be surprised if they really took the time to learn how much of life is just operating on good graces.