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7 Ways to Reduce Online Credit Card Fraud!
© 2004, Red Triangle Enterprises, Inc.
Credit card fraud has become a
serious problem for
Internet merchants, and it's getting worse...
The Internet is the greatest
marketing tool the world
has ever seen! It has opened up a realm of almost unlimited
opportunities for the savvy entrepreneur. Unfortunately, it
has also opened up abundant opportunities for crooks,
especially for credit card thieves. If you do business
online - or if you expect to do so in the future - the
growing problem of Internet credit card fraud is bound to
affect you sooner or later.
If you sell e-books (or if you are
planning to do so),
the bad news is that you are especially vulnerable to online
credit card fraud. The good news is that, since you have
practically no overhead or order fulfillment costs, the
impact on your bottom line is minimal.
If you ship tangible goods, however,
the affect of
online credit card fraud on your business could be
devastating. Unfortunately, thieves can now create
fictitious credit card numbers based on algorithms that
are used to produce real credit card numbers, and these
fictitious numbers can be verified and given approval codes!
Fortunately, there are things that you can do to protect
yourself from becoming a victim...
7 WAYS TO REDUCE
ONLINE CREDIT CARD FRAUD
The following tips will help you
reduce losses due to
online credit card fraud:
1. For large orders, call the customer and confirm the order
over the telephone. If the telephone number turns out to be
fictitious, disconnected, or if it belongs to someone other
than the customer, you will have saved yourself time, money,
and frustration.
2. Don't fill orders until you have complete contact
information including a street address, a billing address,
and a telephone number.
3. Call customers to confirm orders with different "bill
to"
and "ship to" addresses.
4. Require "Address Verification" for all
credit card
transactions.
5. If you are suspicious about an online credit card order
for any reason, call your customer to confirm the order.
If they didn't provide a telephone number, e-mail them
requesting more information. Ask for a telephone number and
ask them to confirm the order via e-mail. If you are dealing
with a thief, you usually won't get a reply.
6. Use caution when processing international orders,
especially if the "bill to" and "ship to" addresses are
different. Many merchants will not accept international
orders unless the "bill to" and the "ship to" address is
the same.
7. If you become a victim of online credit card fraud,
report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission at
www.ftc.gov or call 1-877-382-4357. You should also report
the incident to your merchant account provider immediately.
If the card was stolen, contact the bank that issued the
card to prevent further fraudulent transactions from the
same card.
Queenie Mason is President of Red Triangle
Enterprises,
Inc., publisher of STOP BAD CHECKS! This new guide for
small businesses reveals how to SPOT bad checks before you
deposit them, how to COLLECT on bad checks, even how to
ELIMINATE bad checks altogether! It also features a bonus
section entitled "How to Stop Credit Card Fraud!" For more
information, visit http://www.red-triangle.com/sccf.html
now!
***end of article***
*STOP CREDIT CARD FRAUD!* |
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