• Counterfeit Detecting Devices for Cash, Credit Card, Money Order and Travelers Checks.
• Cash Handling Education
• Merchant Account Transaction Breach Insurance
• EMV, PCI DSS resources and training
• Gateway Fraud Scrubbing

1. Boldly display fraud notices.  By placing fraud notices in both the content of your site and on order forms you can deter most online scammers. Explain any that violators will be pursued to the full extent of the law, and that they can be tracked using by their IP, email addresses, etc.

2. Carefully analyze orders.  Use your instincts!  If an order seems suspicious, check it out. Orders that are for several of the same expensive item, orders that don’t seem concerned about size or color, or large orders that request expensive overnight shipping are often signs that an order may be fraudulent. Make sure customers have completely filled out all information and that all of the information matches.

3. Use Address Verification Service (AVS).  Address verification should be performed on all transactions to make sure that the information that a customer gives you matches the information that the card issuing bank has on file (this service doesn’t work outside the U.S.)  You can’t exclude all orders that have different addresses for shipping than for card billing statements because it would make it impossible for customers to send gifts from your site but orders like this should be handled with caution.  Remember that you can always call or email the customer concerning the nature of their order.

4. Get card CVC2 and CVV2 verification numbers and expiration dates. On the back of MasterCard, most Visa and Discover credit cards is a 3-digit security code located right after the credit card number. American Express cards also have a similar security code that is located on the front of the card right above the cardholder’s account number and is usually 4-digits long. The majority of online payment processors support entering security codes when processing credit card orders.

5. Be cautious of orders that are from outside the U.S. Since a large majority of fraud comes from countries like Asia and Africa, merchants need to be extra careful about accepting ordersthat originate from there. It might help to just not accept orders from outside the U.S.

6. Be cautious of orders that use a free email address.Free email addresses are easy to get and require little information.  The majority of people committing fraud will use them to hide their identity. Some of the most common free email addresses are from yahoo and hotmail.  To find out if an email address is a freebie just take out the username and @ then type www in front of the domain name and see what web site it takes you to. It might just be easier to require an email address from an ISP.

7. Check negative lists. You can use these lists to check mailing address against a database of addresses associated with past chargebacks or fraudulent activity.

8. Use fraud prevention software.There are software programs that merchants can use to automatically check orders to detect the possibility of fraud.  Use the free tools provided by Visa and MasterCard that can help merchants with fraud prevention.

9. Keep records of all interactions with customers.  Save all e-mails and voicemails. Also use caller ID and try to have all calls with customers recorded. These extra precautions will help keep you safe in a case where you might need to fight fraud or charge backs.

10. Call and or e-mail the customer. Speaking directly to the customer is the best way to clear up any confusion. If you cannot reach a customer by the phone number they have provided, e-mail them before you process the order. And ask them to send you their correct phone number to verify their order. You can also send a letter to the cardholders billing address (rather then the shipping address) to confirm the order.