Merchant Newsletter - October 21, 2006

Handling a Questionable Order

Big order, but something is fishy.. What the heck do I do?

Merchants have been defrauded by customers who offer to "call their bank for you", and then put you on the phone.  The "nice bank person" on the other end of the line, is actually a another fraudster giving you a phony authorization.  Your best bet: authorize ONLY by swipe, and if you MUST call in for a voice auth, CALL YOURSELF directly.

You can call 888-835-1777 with the transaction ID to get the complete card number for fraud prevention purposes, and to re-key it after voiding it if you get a proper AVS address.  Also, DEMAND the CVV2 number and insist on a match.  Customers that want you to attempt multiple cards are most often reading them to you from a list of stolen cards they bought online

Personal advice:  Ship ONLY to the AVS verified address, require ADULT signature on delivery.  Put "NO DIVERSION" on the shipping document and DO NOT RELEASE THE TRACKING NUMBER, so a fraudster cannot divert the package enroute.  Offer to track it FOR the customer, but giving the tracking number allows a fraudster to order from a valid AVS address, then have it re-routed by "helpful" UPS/Fedex customer service personnel.  WE void ANY "funny" transaction immediately, so an innocent card is never charged.  We then attempt to contact the customer, and explain that our "computer system" rejected his order, and if he would like to reinstate it, he can do so online or by phone, but AVS and shipping addresses must match (Of course, our merchants are an exception, as we know them).  Also CVV2 MUST MATCH.  Then we take the aforementioned shipping restrictions on that package.


When 31,577 men were polled about which beauty pageant they would prefer to watch, the results were shocking, to say the least:

 
Which pageant would you rather watch?
Women's Prison Pageant 52%
Miss America 31%
Miss Universe 17%

Total Votes: 31,577

I wonder if one of the networks is thinking of a new "Reality TV" show?  At least Martha Stewart is no longer a potential contestant, but Paris Hilton WAS in jail for a few hours does that count?



One of our merchants sent us the following question:  I have an online (internet) order that went through but it does not have an AVS Match. Billing name and address are different from the shipping name and address. Phone # supplied is a cellular number. Obtained a phone number by lookup on Billing Name and Address. The number listed is not the billing party's number. This is a VISA transaction. Most likely this is just someone recently married (first name matches). However, should I, is there even a way, to have VISA verify the card is not stolen / or that the cardholder actually did make this transaction?

We originally published this information in our March 1, 2004 newsletter where we warned our merchants that there were a bunch of high-ticket, fraudulent orders coming our of Indonesia, and that we had helped our prospective merchants determine that they really were FRAUD, and saved them a lot of grief, and financial loss.

How did we do that?  It takes a little effort, but for a large transaction that you have doubt about, or is originating outside the US, but it’s worth it.  First call one of the following phone numbers: 

Mastercard: 1-800-622-7747
Visa:            1-800-847-2750

You  will press ‘2’ for either number, to obtain access to the phone number for the card issuing bank.  The system will prompt you for the card number, and then give you the bank name and phone number.  This is the phone number of the bank that ISSUED the card to the cardholder (Card Issuing Bank).

Next, you call that number, and tell them that you are a merchant, and need to verify cardholder provided information with “YES or NO” questions.  This is important, as there are privacy issues, but they CAN confirm or deny information YOU provide.  You give them the card account number, and you can ask them (again YES or NO), if the cardholder name is (give cardholder name), verify the address, phone number, and CVV2 number.  If you tell them you suspect fraud they MAY (at their option) call the cardholder to verify that they actually performed the transaction.  Remember, the issuing banks have a responsibility to provide privacy to their cardholders, but they are also interested in preventing fraud, so they can only confirm or deny that information you give them is correct.  

We have helped a merchant discover that their $1600 order from Indonesia was actually being performed on a card from an elderly lady in the Midwest.  The cardholder, the operator from the issuing bank, and especially the merchant were all very glad that we helped them prevent this potential fraud event.

Merchants calling the card issuer take note!  We have merchants that call (for high ticket or high risk sales) the card issuer to verify the cardholder information and address.  This is a great idea, but MAKE THE CALL YOURSELF.  

 

Visa:
MasterCard:
AmEx:
Discover:		 1-800-944-1111 
1-800-944-1111 
1-800-528-2121
1-800-347-1111

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.