New Feature for Pocket Verifier! UV Counterfeit detector. Fraud and foreign lotteries.

Merchant Newsletter - October 15, 2005

PC Verifier gets Cash Receipts!

The new Cash Receipts option is on the Credit Card sales screen.

If you get an email saying you won a lottery in a foreign country, just delete it. The original foreign lottery scams simply proclaimed that you are a major winner in a foreign lottery (that you didn't enter, or at least you don't remember entering).

However, in order to claim your prize winnings -- often millions of dollars and always cash -- you must first remit a 'contest fee' to cover processing and taxes. Needless to say, anyone who submitted the fee never saw that cash again. Scam operators — often based in Canada — are using the telephone and direct mail to entice U.S. consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe. These lottery solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail. This means that if you DID actually win, you would have to do some jail time too!

Still, federal law enforcement authorities are intercepting and destroying millions of foreign lottery mailings sent or delivered by the truckload into the U.S. And consumers, lured by prospects of instant wealth, are responding to the solicitations that do get through-to the tune of $120 million a year, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The Federal Trade Commission says most promotions for foreign lotteries are likely to be phony. Many scam operators don't even buy the promised lottery tickets. Others buy some tickets, but keep the "winnings" for themselves. In addition, lottery hustlers use victims' bank account numbers to make unauthorized withdrawals or their credit card numbers to run up additional charges.

The FTC has these words of caution for consumers who are thinking about responding to a foreign lottery:

If you play a foreign lottery-through the mail or over the telephone-you're violating federal law.
If you purchase one foreign lottery ticket, expect many more bogus offers for lottery or investment "opportunities." Your name will be placed on "sucker lists" that fraudulent telemarketers buy and sell.
Keep your credit card and bank account numbers to yourself. Scam artists often ask for them during an unsolicited sales pitch.

The bottom line: Ignore all mail, email, and phone solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you receive what looks like lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local postmaster.

Our latest upgrade to PC Verifier includes Cash Receipts! Our merchants have been asking for this for a while, and now it is available... FREE, in our upgrades section.

Entering a cash sale:

Click Cards Button
Click CASH SALE check box, Enter name or CASH SALE (Name field is required).
Enter Reference (Optional), Amount and (optional) Tip
Click Process – and you will be prompted to enter the Tendered Amount*
Cash Sale dialog will appear, showing the amount of change (if applicable) and auto-print receipt (if Auto-print Approvals is turned on in options)

* Tendered amount can also be entered separately by setting focus to the Tendered textbox.

Note: Cash sales cannot be partially saved like credit cards sales or ACH.

Cash sales do NOT post to Transaction Central. If you want to keep the transactions, you can use PC Verifier's export option, and export all your transactions to a file.

You can modify the header of your receipts in PC Verifier, simply press the "Options" button, and then on the Options screen, click on "Modify Merchant Information", and you can change the information on this screen:

This amazing Micro-UV “black” light is perfect for spotting those fake credit cards, counterfeit currency, or any other item that has Ultra Violet (UV) properties. Simply push the button on the side of the light and a bright blue UV light is emitted. Small enough for our mobile merchants to take anywhere!

Use the Micro-UV light to check new U S currency. All new bills produced except the $1 bill have a security strip imbedded into them. Each strip is coated with special UV ink that turns a different color when subjected to UV light:
Accept Credit Cards Anywhere!

$100		Red
$ 50		Yellow
$ 20		Green
$ 10		Orange
$ 5		Blue

Simply shine the light behind the strip to ensure that the bill has the correct color.
Accept Credit Cards Anywhere

Use the Micro-UV light to check credit cards. All major credit cards have letters or an image printed on the front of the card in UV ink. Most fake credit cards DON’T HAVE any UV printing

Remember, at swap meets and trade shows, you are 'targets' for people to try to pass bad credit cards, bad checks and funny money, as they know you will never see them again... !

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