More Information to fight Fraud 

Other web tools are http://www.addresses.com/  has a "business finder" that might prove useful, http://fonefinder.net/ can look up the phone number and tell you if it is from the same region as the address, and http://www.switchboard.com/ has multiple lookup capability.

The one thing these tools cannot tell you, is that a transaction is safe.  Discovering that an address is a "package forwarder" or that there is a scam alert on Google tells you it is NOT a good order, but there is no positive proof that you will not get a chargeback, even if you verify that the address is good.  If the customer's AVS address is his home, and you ship to his office, (let's say you called his company, and he really does work there) is NO protection.  Since you DO NOT have Proof of Delivery to the AVS address, his chargeback will leave you holding the bag!  Believe it or not, there are people who make a LIVING doing this, scamming merchants to ship to a "work address", knowing that their chargeback will sail right through.  They have a really polished story to do this (see "long story" in column one), about "how the diamond ring is for his wife, and he does not want her to see it".  Have your customer call their card issuing bank, to have their office address added to their AVS list.  It's easy, and should take him only a few minutes.  If it is that important, to them, it should not be a problem.  If not... see "long story" in column one.

Does this sound draconian and unreasonable?  Maybe. These are your products, and if you don't mind taking a loss once in a while, go right ahead. We monitor a number of merchant chat rooms, full of stories that all go like this:  "I sent a package to someone, it was not their AVS address, now I have a chargeback, what do I do??"  Likewise, we also see merchants who write: "Caught one! - Address xyz is registered to a MBE address!"  Hopefully, these newsletters will insure our merchants are in the latter category!

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Our advice about shipping to any address EXCEPT the AVS verified address is unchanged:  DON'T DO IT! Merchants that ship to unverified addresses will eventually get burned, but there are tools you can use to minimize the occurrences, and identify some of the fraudsters...

Before we get to the actual tools- a personal observation:  We have taken over 5,000 merchant applications, and we have had our share of fraudulent apps!  When people call up with a long story about their address or phone number discrepancies, an odd rule has appeared.  We call it the "long story" factor.  The longer the story, the higher the probability that the app will turn out to be fraudulent. Not a rule, but something to keep in mind.  Also, the smoother the story, the more often it may have been practiced.  Remember, the professional fraudster has placed many orders before yours, and will be right back on his computer or phone placing another, just as soon as he has YOU convinced.

If you have an address you want to check out, there are ways to do that. First, let's consider what the fraudster wants:  he wants an address that he can pick up products from, or have them re-shipped to him.  Mailbox companies, freight and package forwarders, and others specialize in these services. Some even cater to out-of-country requests for a US address just for this purpose! Companies like MailServiceCenter will give anyone a "Prestigious Los Angeles Address" and brag that your private information will not be given to anyone, including government agencies, and that they will forward your merchandise to anywhere in the world!  They even post the USPS regulation allowing the use of "Suite" as the designation of a mailbox in their facility!  Are you SURE you still want to do this??  Read on....

Reverseaddress.com is another tool.  Just as a test, we entered the address of a known "Mail Box Etc" address:  "215 Orangethorpe Fullerton CA"   The response shows a number of companies at this address, as well as the actual PHYSICAL resident, "Mail Boxes Etc".  When you see this, you realize that all the other companies are simply "tenants" of the MBE address, renting boxes for their own use.  MBE and other nationwide "mailbox" companies require people to physically go in and show ID to open a "box" or "suite", but that is meager protection.  Companies like Mailservicecenter.com (mentioned previously) will allow anyone, from any country to log in and get a box and service over the Internet.

As a matter of fact, they can even arrange for a Los Angeles area code phone number to go with the address: 

• "If you would like a local Los Angeles number that you can answer in your country,  www.vonage.com offers a VOIP (Voice Over IP). For under $25/month they will assign you a phone number in (310) area code which can be answered anywhere in the world. You will be sent a small router which you plug into your ADSL line. Plug your regular telephone into the router and you have a US telephone. When you make calls, your Caller ID will show you are calling from the US, no matter where you are."

Pretty scary?  You can ship to a perfect looking US address, call a LA phone number, and have it answered, but end up with your products in Nigeria!

None of these tools can weed them all out, there are just too many. the ONLY protection against chargeback is shipping to the BILLING ADDRESS of the card, and getting a signature on delivery!  Unless you are a payment processing veteran, chances are that the fraudsters have much more experience than you.  We TRY to compensate with these newsletters, but it is a lesson you do NOT want to learn the hard way.

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