Merchant Newsletter - April 9, 2005

MerchantAnywhere Reaches Top 20K




Alexa Certifies us as one of the top 20K out of 4 Billion pages!
For the fifth year in a row, identity theft topped the list of complaints reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2004, accounting for 39% of all complaints received by the FTC.  

What you may NOT be aware of is that fully 50% of reported identity fraud is perpetrated by relatives, friends and neighbors, or acquaintances of the victim.  That's a truly amazing statistic. And whereas many people think that computer crimes account for most identity theft, computer crimes, in fact, only accounted for 11.6% of all identity theft where the cause was known in 2004.

According to a survey done by Javelin Strategy & Research, these 'close encounters' by friends and family are costing much more money -- and time to resolve -- than 'stranger' fraud would.

Here's an example: the average loss from phishing scams is $2,320. But when the identity theft is a result of fraud by family and friends, the average loss is $15,607!

So how do you decrease your chances of your identity being stolen by a neighbor or a nephew? Here are 5 tips:
  1. Don't give ANYONE access to your PIN #s.
  2. Don't leave financial mail or statements lying around your house or your car -- you'd be appalled at how much information can be gleaned from your checkbook, bank statements, credit card account statements and tax records.
  3.  When you are discarding things, shred any personal documents that may contain personal or financial information.
  4. As much as possible, sign up for electronic banking and account monitoring, and then review your accounts regularly. Any fraud will be detected sooner -- and more easily -- than if you wait for monthly mail.
  5. Review your credit report, bank accounts and credit card bills frequently. Self detection is the best way to find out about identity fraud early.

Click here or on the FRAUD WATCH logo for our summary of the best FRAUD WATCH articles!

See all of our newsletters in our newsletter archive!  Get tips and tricks, previews of new product announcements, tips to prevent fraud, Free stuff, and much, much more.

MerchantAnywhere.com has risen to the top 20K websites in the world, with an Alexa ranking of 19,653.  We have rising steadily since we started in 2001, but the closer you get to #1, the harder it gets.

These Internet Rankings are performed and certified by Alexa, a web-metrics company owned and operated by Amazon.com.  Alexa Web Information Service (AWIS) offers developers access to the information gathered by its Web Crawl feature, which the includes more than 100 terabytes of data from over 4 billion Web pages.

How do we compare with our competitors? Take a look at this chart, against the largest merchant acquirer in the United States, CardService International:



MerchantAnywhere is in Blue, and is WAY above CardService (in Red).  Why?  CardService is interested in SIGNING merchants, where we spend most of our energy SERVICING them, with educational and informative newsletters (like this one), FREE upgrades, resources, new technologies, new software, and advanced customer service like our after-hours & weekend support system.  This philosophy is really paying off, as we are getting more and more referrals from incredibly happy customers every day.  We will continue to expand our web site and add new features, enhancements, and resources as we grow.

Pocket Verifier Upgrade Available!  A non-critical update to the Palm version of Pocket Verifier can be downloaded here.  This fixes a small bug when calculating tax on sales below $10.00  This upgrade can be installed on Palm OS 3, 4 and 5 (Treo's 270, 300, 600 and 650)


T-Mobile releases update for HP 6315 Pocket PC!   T-Mobile has teamed with HP to develop a new version of software for the HP iPAQ h6315 Pocket PC.

This software upgrade is designed to provide:

  • Improved overall stability
  • Improved Bluetooth® performance
  • Improved voice quality
  • Improved e-mail performance
  • Other general improvements

Please note:  We have not tested this particular upgrade, as our 6315 is in transit from Korea.  We will update you in next week's newsletter

 

ORDER FREE MERCHANT MATERIALS HERE!!!

Copyright (c) 2004 Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved
  See all of our newsletters in our newsletter archive!  Get tips and tricks, previews of new product announcements, tips to prevent fraud, Free stuff, and much, much more

Merchant Information is a newsletter that is available to all members of MerchantAnywhere.com and Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. This newsletter is provided as an informational tool designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest news and tools available for mobile commerce and merchant processing. As with all user information, we do not give or sell your personal information to any outside company for its use in marketing or solicitation. To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please reply with “REMOVE” in the subject line.  All of our merchant applicants should be receiving this email newsletter.  If you would like to subscribe, send an email with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject to: merchantapp@merchantanywhere.com.  If you are currently receiving the newsletter, and would like to be removed from the mailing list, send an email with the word "REMOVE' in the subject to: inform@merchantanywhere.com . Once removed, we cannot reinstate that email address, you must re-subscribe with another.