Information Protection and Credit Card Fraud Protection
“What can I do to protect your customers information?”
- Use quality e-commerce software that is either automatically updated or update the software as updates become available. If you have not received any notices of updates in over a year it is possible you need to search for updates yourself.
- Do not record or save client information in paper form or on any computer without encryption and protected access.
“How can I protect my company from credit card fraud?”
Online sales can drive your companies profits and a modern e-commerce website can help to protect both you and your clients from credit fraud. Some payment gateways add a layer of security that monitors credit card usage so they can stop credit fraud before stolen cards can be used long. These processes can stop a good part of the fraudulent purchases. It is up to you to stop the rest.
Steps you need to take to ensure you don’t get a charge back and loss of products.
- Insure the credit card listed address is the same as the shipping address and always require a signature on delivery.
- Make sure the address is a business address. A quick check online and phone call can help.
- Sales to private residences can be checked with a call and consider checking online for a Facebook account to confirm the identity of the buyer.
Below are some points that should cause you some concern and prompt further investigation
- First-Time Shopper – Criminals are always looking for new victims
- Larger Than Normal Orders – Because stolen cards or account numbers have a limited life span, crooks need to maximize the size of their purchase
- Orders that include several of the same item – Having multiples of the same item increases a criminal’s profits.
- Orders made up of “big-ticket” items – These items have maximum resale value and therefore maximum profit potential.
- “Rush” or “Overnight” Shipping – Crooks want these fraudulently obtained items as soon as possible for the quickest possible resale, and aren’t concerned about extra delivery charges.
- Shipping to an international address – A significant number of fraudulent transactions are shipped to fraudulent cardholders outside the US. Visa® AVS can’t validate non-US, except inCanada and the United Kingdom
- Transactions with similar account numbers – Particularly useful if the account numbers used have been generated using software available on the internet (e.g. CreditMaster)
- Shipping to a single address, but transactions placed on multiple cards – Could involve an account number generated using special software, or even a batch of stolen cards
- Multiple transactions on one card over a very short period of time – Could be an attempt to “run a card” until the account is closed
- Multiple transactions on one card or a similar card with a single billing address but multiple shipping addresses
- Could represent organized activity, rather than one individual at work – In online transactions; multiple cards used from a single IP (Internet Protocol) address
- More than one or two cards could definitely indicate a fraud scheme – Orders from internet addresses that make use of free email services. These email services involve no billing relationships and often neither an audit trail nor verification that a legitimate cardholder opened the account
