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| Merchant Newsletter - May 7, 2005 | |||
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Simple device protects merchants |
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 How to Avoid Credit Card Skimming Skimming is becoming an international problem that now is growing in the U.S. Losses exceed $1 billion a year. What is skimming? Credit card skimming occurs when someone uses a hand-held device called a skimmer, basically just a card reader with a battery and memory.. The credit card is swiped through the device, and the device reads the magnetic strips on your credit cards. Now the thief has the information needed to make a counterfeit card. Each skimmer can hold data from hundreds of different credit cards. The data - often sold to other people - can be downloaded into a computer and e-mailed anywhere, and around the world counterfeit credit cards are being made. Where is skimming most likely to take place? Restaurants are the most likely spot for skimming. In fact, restaurant employees have been prosecuted for skimming. The skimmers are often used outside of your sight when a waiter or waitress takes your card when you go to pay for a meal. Are some people more likely to be victims than others? Anyone who uses a credit card in places where it is removed from his sight can be a victim. However, gold or platinum cards are often targeted because of their higher credit limits. Restaurants, gas stations with the card machine "under the shelf", businesses with the machine "in the back office" are all possibilities. The business may be reputable and honest, but the new kid taking your card may not be! How can you avoid being a victim of this type of scam? You could watch the waiter as he processes your transaction, but that's not always practical. Frequent restaurants that process your credit cards at your table or where you take the card to a cashier so the card never leaves your sight. The best thing you can do is keep track of your credit card bills to make sure there are no strange charges. Report the problems to credit card company, law enforcement agencies and to the Federal Trade Commission.
When a major change comes along in search engine operation, some win, and some lose. Post your products on Froogle (FOR FREE) and be on the winning side. Note: You can get info on submitting here.
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Chargebacks are just about the worst possible thing that can happen
to a merchant. You lose the merchandise sold, the sales amount, and
you have to pay a penalty to boot! This is the result of regulations
intended to protect the cardholder, leaving the merchant (you) holding the
bag. Accept credit cards anywhere! What the card associations don't want you to know (Visa, MasterCard), is there has been changes in card regulations due to some recent litigations. These changes can mean a great deal to you, the merchant! Basically, if you follow the proper steps, and get the required backup from each sale, you can prevent the loss of your funds if the sale is charged back due to fraud! Accept credit cards anywhere! How does this all work? Starting the first of this year, if a merchant swipes a transaction and receives an authorization, imprints the card, and the transaction comes back for fraud, the card issuer has to take the loss and not the merchant. The card issuer must do a chargeback so they can deduct the loss as a business loss, but the card issuer must refund the merchant the original charge. The chargeback fees are still absorbed by the merchant, but at least there are not out their merchandise and money. The
imprinter is the key to this procedure. You must imprint the
card, and fill out the sales slip with the amount, date (Very Important),
and authorization code (which HAS to come from a swipe - voice or phone
authorizations don't work for this). |
This
works ONLY on chargebacks classified as FRAUD. This is still not
protection against customer disputes, product not received,
disputes about quality or anything else. Just because you
now have the ability to get your funds back, don't get lax on your fraud
prevention and detection procedures. It is STILL going to cost you
money, and it takes time getting the response to send back when you get
that retrieval notice, which you still MUST respond to with all of the
items we have mentioned in this article. In addition, the standard rules apply,
meaning that if
your chargebacks accrue to over 1% of your total monthly sales, your
account can be in jeopardy of closure by the bank. (not a good thing) Accept credit cards anywhere! I am an Internet and Mail-order company, what can I do? Well, that is a little more difficult, but if you are selling big ticket items, it is certainly worth it. Besides the traditional authorization, you must get a legible image (Xerox or FAX) of BOTH sides of the credit card, as well as their signature on a properly worded agreement. Click here to download a sample agreement. This is a lot of effort, but some companies have been able to get their funds back on big-ticket items that they would have otherwise taken a loss on.
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Copyright (c) 2004 Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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See all of our newsletters in
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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. |
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What
the heck is a Froogle?? EVERYONE knows Google, the
fantastic search engine. In Fact, if you are not using Google
Adwords to promote your site, then the best advice I have is: START
NOW. If you are, or aren't, but want to take advantage of a
new, FREE method
of boosting your Google listings, list your products in Froogle,
Google's younger sister. Why?? Well, how about this:
Google is serving Froogle results in it's searches... at the
top! It's enough that the big Search Engine
newsletters are posting comments like: 
ORDER
FREE MERCHANT MATERIALS HERE!!!