Protecting Merchants against fraud is a high priority at SECPay, we have produced the following guide to help Online Merchants identify fraud risks.
Our SECGuard service offers an automated method to actively screen fraudulant transactions, though this should be used in support of some commonsense well defined business rules. Below is a list of tips which may be suitable for use in minimising your business’s exposure to fraud.
High Risk Countries
Some countries may carry a higher risk of fraud. Be aware of the delivery address for countries that you would not usually consider trading with such as Africa, Romania, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia and Slovenia. Ask yourself a couple of questions: Do you know the state of the legal system in that country? What would or could you do if a transaction did transpire to be fraudulant? If in doubt do not ship!
Useful Website
http://www.equifax.co.uk provide credit ratings for merchants selling very high value goods.
“Code 10″ Address Check
Make a “code 10″ call into your acquiring bank to verify the card holders address
http://www.192.com and http://www.qas.com give access to UK/International databases where the cardholder address can be verified.
Deferred Payments
If you sell high risk products such as mobiles and computers, then always use deferred payments to check out new customers before taking money and accepting an order.
IP Address
We supply you with the IP address of the customer (where available). If you are suspicious then use http://www.samspade.org to check the IP address and the consistency with other transaction details.
Credit Card Origin
Check the origin of the credit card is sensible for country – for example, if a customer based in Thailand uses a USA credit card (SECPay provide card issuing bank information as part of the service).
Know Your Transaction Patterns
Know your normal transaction patterns – be suspicious of large transactions from an unusual source or that do not make sense, ie goods that do not go together.
Anonymous Email Accounts
Be suspicious of customers using free email accounts – traceability is more difficult.
Multiple/Failed Transactions
Check for multiple and failed transactions from the same customer in the transaction viewer – if you receive multiple transactions with frequent failures then this could signal a fraudulent attempt. (SECPay provide a “blocking” system to prevent fraudsters using a merchants site to test card numbers from number generators which helps considerably but is not perfect and never can be).
AVS/CV2
SECPay provides transmission for AVS (address and post code verification) and CVV2 (last 3 digit’s on the reverse of the card) for ALL acquiring banks. This service is FREE OF CHARGE. Please ensure your template is customised if you require the capture and verification of this information.
As this is an additional service from the acquiring banks, please contact them direct for up to date information.
