How to STOP Web Credit Card Processing Fraud?

How to stop online fraud - especially in the critical field of Web credit card processing - is of prime concern for every serious Internet business. The press is having a hay day with stories about Internet fraud. The newspapers, the news shows and especially the Web related magazines love to share stories of how consumers are getting ripped off by Internet scams. To be sure, those scams exist and consumers must be cautious. However, there is a flip side of this situation that has received very little, if any press.

Unfortunately, the Internet - and especially the operation of Web credit card processing - is the perfect environment for fraud with almost complete anonymity. There is a tremendous increase in fraudulent purchases made with stolen credit card information. In some cases, the credit card numbers provided pass through verification, are given an approval number and turn out to be totally fictitious numbers based on the algorithm used to produce authentic numbers.

The press never covers this, but it is you, the vendor who really gets hurt by credit card frauds. Formerly the cardholder was not responsible for more than $50 of fraudulent purchases. At present the cardholder's loss is absolutely nothing at all. The issuing bank of a stolen credit card really doesn't care because they will simply charge the merchant back for any fraudulent purchases, plus a $10-$15 charge back fee.

To make matters worse, there are now underground software programs available that can generate an unlimited number of mathmatically valid, yet fictitious credit card numbers. Combine that with complete anonymity and it spells big trouble for any business conducting online commerce. In addition, there are newsgroups out there that actually post stolen credit card data. So someone picks your pocket now and ten minutes later all your data is available world-wide.

You, as a merchant, are dependent on fraud-free Web credit card processing. What can you do to protect yourself - other than not accepting online credit card orders?

• You can implement different policies to reduce online fraud by up to 80%. However, there is one big setback. It is a tedious task to manually verivy the credit card for every order. If you are a high-dollar-volume online company, processing a considerable amount of money on the Net, real-time ecommerce credit card processing verification is a must.
  
  This is especially true for businesses selling soft-goods (a non-physical product), online subscriptions or memberships, or other services where your delivery is made to an Email address instead of a physical address and where you can totally automate the ordering process.
  
  
• In the case of real-time Web credit card processing verification the most important factor for the protection of your online business is your choice of the right Web credit card processing service.

There are many services out there that offer (for a fee or percentage) to process your orders in real-time, while the customer is logged onto the site.

Many real-time Web credit card processing services do absolutely no pre-screening of orders. If the credit card goes through verification, the order is processed and the "customer" is immediately given their serial number or subscription user name. You, as the merchant, won't ever find out about the fraudulent nature of the order until you receive the chargeback. Yes, these services will tell you they use the Address Verification Service (AVS) to insure the address provided is what the credit card company has on record, but that does not mean that "onlinefraud@hotmail.com" is the actual owner of that card.

Fraud committed against merchants conducting online transactions is increasing dramatically, and will continue to do so. However, there is no need to panic.

While selecting the Web credit card processing service for your Internet business you should have these considerations firmly fixed in your mind:

• Up-to-date Web credit card processing services evaluate every single transaction, to predict its potential fraud risk, in real time...
  
  
• Real-time automated systems of state-of-the-art Web credit card processing services predict the fraud risk of every transaction within milliseconds based on a combination of historical data mining, neural network analysis, and industry-specific rule sets. It may then be automatically approved, automatically declined, or out-sorted for manual intervention. This decision occurs in real time, prior to returning the authorization response to the merchant...
  
  
• If the transaction is out-sorted, it is prioritized for manual follow-up prior to settlement, using sophisticated data-mining tools...
  
  
• If and when a chargeback occurs, the Web credit card processing service's chargeback analysis team performs all necessary research and representment, using custom-built chargeback workflow automation tools, and according to a statistically optimized decision tree that ensures the maximum possible recovery rate and the minimum possible fines...

While many Web credit card processing services are taking great pains to establish more or less effective anti-fraud shields to protect their customers, this one - specializing in high-risk web credit card processing (it processes half of all online gaming transactions, the most high-risk online industry of all) - seems to be especially qualified to protect your online business from the serious threat of fraud...

Click here to find out more about Surefire Premium Processing...

...a high end web credit card processing service, partner of companies like The National Bank of Canada, Network Commerce, American Airlines, AOL Canada, Intuit and many others...

Look to this newly revised resource for an up-to-date, in-depth examination of how payments are made electronically across the Internet. The second edition covers the very latest developments in this quickly expanding area, including new security techniques such as the advanced encryption standard (AES) and multi-application smart cards.

Go for Electronic Payment Gateways with Most Effective ANTI FRAUD Tools!
While shopping for Electronic Payment Gateways, the importance of available fraud prevention can never be overestimated. Get the best, especially if processing high volume credit card transactions...