Research suggests that while credit card fraud is a major problem, it actually affects only a small percentage of online purchases. In fact, it is foolish to apply a “one size fits all” method that has unintended adverse consequences. Therefore, a balance between caution and practicality should surely be applied.

In another article, he railed about sellers who insisted on paying a few pennies at a buyer’s bank as a means of avoiding the use of stolen credit cards. That can be very irritating to the buyer because it involves fraud, but it also delays shipping, one or the other of which can lead the customer to cancel the order and never return it. For some sellers, any method other than automated may be rejected because “it takes too long”, there are no staff to do it “,” not the way we do things here “, and so on.

What will be proposed in this article requires more effort, attention to detail and probably a change of mind. However, the techniques will work to help protect against fraud, without offending and / or losing a valid customer.

Orders that should cause concern

• Start by checking your own “suspicious orders” record. (see below) If buyer details appear in those records with details of the actions that were taken, you are on your way to eliminating a potential issue and can address it appropriately.
• Be careful if the billing and delivery addresses are different. However, there may be perfectly valid reasons, especially if the billing is to a PO box number but the merchandise is wanted at a physical address. In the opinion of this author and despite the advice of banks, the automatic rejection of orders with PO box addresses is just another way to annoy the customer, unless a very good explanation of this policy is provided.
• It should be mandatory that all customer orders include a contact phone number as well as an email address, so if something seems doubtful, a phone call to the buyer is easily possible. Lack of connection or a connection to some strange voicemail will be an obvious warning sign. Another method is to use “reverse number” software to see if there is a match. If not, check the order. (this solution is available online)
• Buyers using unreliable email addresses should be considered fraudulent. Most honest people will have something easily identifiable at their address, that is, a personal name or a business name. Of course, the seller can and should promptly send a simple message requesting confirmation that the order was made by that person. Then see if your message bounces or if there is no response. If the address refers to a company, it is easy to find that company on the web. If it is not found, there are reasons to be suspicious.

How to make the inquiry

Ask someone in a nice way to make a phone call to the buyer. As long as the contact could If done by email, the personal touch is much more likely to yield positive results and provides a much greater opportunity to assess the situation without offending a legitimate buyer.

• A reasonable reason for the inquiry MUST be provided. Any reasonable person will understand if the inquiry is (a) prompt, (b) courteous, (c) devoid of any adverse inferences, and WITHOUT implying that a problem applies to this particular client.
• A little “white lie” seems perfectly appropriate. Rather than saying something that could be construed as an accusation, it would be better to say “we are having a problem with our systems and although it is not your fault, we are unable to process your payment.” “Do you have a different card or could you pay by bank transfer?”
• Any hostile response will raise the “red flag” and allow the seller to reject the order for “technical reasons and with regret.”
• Always ask for the name of the customer’s bank. Someone using a stolen card is unlikely to know the answer.
• For high value transactions, request a “verification check” This is a service operated by VISA and Mastercard where the customer has a password authorized by their bank. It requires the buyer to sign up for this, but a legitimate buyer is unlikely to reject it.

Keep records

You don’t need anything more complicated than a simple E XCEL file (or any other spreadsheet or database) to keep track of suspicious orders. It will only take a minute or two to enter the details. Suggested fields are as follows:

The date of the order

Name of the buyer

Buyer’s phone number

Buyer’s email address

Requested delivery address

Item ordered

Credit card number, expiration date and CCV number

Reason given for the query

Result (order processed OR rejected)

Excel allows searches in any of these fields to facilitate the identification of any repeated attempts.

Share your concerns

In obvious cases of possible fraud:

• Inform your bank. They will have professional staff to investigate further, also to protect you in the event of funds being stolen.
• Report the matter to the card issuing company.
• In extreme cases, also inform the police.

Keep reading

This article attempts to offer practical advice from the perspective of retaining honest customers. You can find more information on investigation and prevention techniques on many sites on the Internet.