Fraud Prevention
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With Chip and Pin now successfully introduced for UK credit cards over-the-counter purchases, the online retail community have seen a noticeable increase in attempted fraud as criminal gangs focus their efforts on defrauding Web shops.
But as shop owners what can be done to prevent or minimise fraud through our Web shops?
Fraud Prevention
We've listed some basic steps all Web shop owners can take that will filter out the vast majority of fraudulent orders through your online shops.
1. Use a reputable UK based payment service provider such as Worldpay, Protx or similar that allow Verified by Visa or similar additional card holder requirements.
2. Do not accept orders for Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and Asia with the exception of Hong Kong. That sounds like you might lose a lot of potential business but in reality the UK, main European and US markets are big enough to trade to. By not trading with the above regions you will see an immediate and noticable decrease in attempted fraud.
3. Unless directly requested by your customer, only ship to the country the credit card is registered in. You could go a step further and only ship to the address to which the credit card is registered.
4. Enforce the customer to accept your terms and conditions during checkout and use courier signed-for delivery, not the Royal Mail. The only way to dispute a chargeback (this is where the bank reclaims the order money from you on behalf of the card holder), is to have a written signature accepting your terms and conditions and written signature confirming delivery.
5. Only accept orders from customers who provide a landline telephone number. In our experience most fraudsters register a mobile number only.
6. For high value orders, give the customer a polite 'customer services' call to confirm their order details before dispatching. Genuine customers understand and appreciate the need to make these sorts of checks and if done in a non-confrontational way can help build confidence in your business.
Fraud prevention is a fact of life for online retailers, but by following some simple rules you can reduce the threat significantly.
With Internet Retailer's easy to use Web shops, all of our shop owners benefit from a range of in-built fraud prevention techniques and functions which help minimise fraudulent order attempts.
Based on experience of running highly visible online shops in the fashion, electrical and sporting goods markets, our unique eCommerce software has evolved to meet the needs of fraud prevention, and it remains right at the top of our priority list when developing new features.