To avoid falling victim to fraudulent card-absent transactions, watch out for these signs:
- Customer orders larger than normal.
- Include large quantities of the same items or very expensive items in the order.
- The client requests that the shipment be "urgent" or "the next day”
- The customer requests that the order be shipped to an international address.
- Orders are shipped to the same address and purchased with different cards.
- They use an email generated in a free email service (Yahoo, Gmail, etc).
- The client requests that the transactions be charged to account numbers that are sequential.
- Provide multiple card numbers from a single IP address.
- Upload multiple transactions to one card over a very short period of time.
Follow these steps to decrease the chances of card-not-present fraud:
Use AVS. It is a service from your merchant account provider that compares the shipping address provided to the merchant with the cardholder's billing address registered with the issuing bank. If the two do not match, please do not send the merchandise. AVS only checks addresses within the US.
For an additional level of security, verify the authenticity of the card by requesting the three-digit credit card validation code. It has several names, depending on the issuer. Like CVV, CVC and CID. This code is often missing on fraudulent cards or is not available in the case of compromised card numbers or generated account numbers.
Ask the customer for additional information, such as a day and night phone number. Then call them later to confirm the sale. Alternatively, before sending the order to the customer, confirm the order using the billing address, not the "ship to" address.
Ask for the bank's name on the front of the card and the bank's customer service number on the back of the card.
Ship merchandise only to the cardholder's billing address. You may want to request a certified signature as proof that the merchandise was delivered.
If you are not comfortable with an unusual mail, phone or internet transaction and have a merchant account with us, please email us at merchantclaims@popularmerchant.com or contact us at 787-773-5150. We will help you verify the transaction with the issuing bank before shipping the merchandise.