how to spot online fraud?

[babybiz]

Can you give me some tips on how to spot fraudulent payments/purchases. I use worldpay and that matches up the card number, security code, address and postcode. What else should i be looking for?

I've had one person place 3 orders on my site, not huge but this is highly irregular. The card details and address match so I don't see any problem but it got me thinking and I'm not sure if I should be watching out for other things?

Tashxx

[Urban Space]

There's a post somewhere about excuses. If you give me a minute I'll try and find it for you, might be of help.

Thanks

Liam

[Coding Monkey]

I know WorldPay offer a Fraud detection service for a monthly fee. To be honest, you'll always be limited by what you can do. If someone comes into a shop, uses a credit card to spend £5000, types in the chip & pin and all goes through, yet they're 19, you might be slightly suspicious, but ultimately the only thing you can do is decline it.

It's just looking at the circumstances.

[Urban Space]

But there's a chance that the transaction could be legit! You may have just turned away £5000!

Liam

[Coding Monkey]

Well, exactly. The security WorldPay offer is really all that you can do apart from ring the people up, go around their house and watch the postman deliver it.

[Urban Space]

Well there's always a risk isn't there! Tash, that post - http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7146&highlight=excuse

Might help

Thanks

Liam

[Astaroth]

To be honest in a small company the only thing you can really do is pay for a fraud service.

For large corporations there are more possibilities open but the potential benefit will be massively out weighted by the cost/ effort required.

[Hayles]

I didn't know you can pay for a fraud service. What does it do (ok, apart from the obvious!), where do you get it from, and what sort of cost is involved?

Hayles

[Urban Space]

Don't look at me! Try putting it in Google? Fraud protection services?

Thanks

Liam

[babybiz]

Thanks for the link, off to read the thread - lol @ some of those excuses! Trouble is worldpay is killing me right now as it is with their fees, adding the additional protection service will finish me off so to speak. Maybe if things keep busy after Christmas I might add it but for now I guess I'll just have to trust the address match thing.

[Urban Space]

Did it help then? I'm on a roll for helping people today :) lol

Liam

[Hayles]

But Liam, you're younger than me.

Respect your elders boy...


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Aunty Hayles

[Urban Space]

Tut! One day you'll need me! Just you wait! :lol:

Liam

[Coding Monkey]

You might want to look at alternatives to WorldPay.

WorldPay, from what I'm aware, charge £20/m and 4.5% of turnover. Take a look at Fasthosts (http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/ecommerce/merchant-account/) and SecPay (http://secpay.com).

[babybiz]

Did it help then? I'm on a roll for helping people today :) lol

Liam

Kind of ;) I'm more after protecting myself from credit/debit card fraud and more to the point how to spot it. I wasn't sure if the address match was enough to rest easy or whether I should be doing further checks and if so what.

This is a good source of info....

http://www.cardwatch.org.uk/default.asp?sectionid=5&pageid=82 (thought i'd stick it in this thread as referrence material).

[babybiz]

Thanks MacMyDay, I'll have a look at both of those.

Tashxx

[Coding Monkey]

No problemo. WorldPay are expensive because many people are aware of them due to Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland etc.

Their annual fee is another factor I don't like about them and the fact that 'WorldPay' is on every single page. SecPay offer fantastic freedom, but I've never used E-Merchant. You can certainly rely on Fasthosts, though. Fantastic company.

[babybiz]

Just had a quick look at both of them and they do look a lot more desirable than worldpay. WP is just about to take their annual fee any day now and it's too short notice to do anything about it because I'm up to my neck at the moment but I will be checking out both of them more and doing something about it as soon as I can.

Big fat raspberrys to worldpay.

Do either of them pay out quicker than the hideous 4 weeks or more that worldpay require?

[Coding Monkey]

SecPay take 3 days depending on your bank. They instantly transfer the money and let your bank do the rest.

If you want a further chat about it, PM me or contact me via my website. I'll be pleased to offer free information.

[gary]

There are a few things you can do with regard to fraudulent online transactions:

1) Check Worldpay's AVS - if they all match and the delivery address is the same, then there's a good chance the order is fine. You could go as far as insisting that orders will only be delivered to the billing address if fraud is a particular problem.

2) Sign up for Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode - this provides added protection and shifts the liability for fraud to the card issuer in some cases.

3) Check the phone number, email address, IP address etc - these can sometimes give you clues as to the validity of the person.

4) Use a service like Maxmind - an inexpensive way of having every order vetted, though it should only be used in conjunction with 1 + 2 above.

[SillyJokes]

I am not happy discussing on a public forum how to combat fraud because it can help fraudsters as
well as merchants.

Sometimes if you are suspicious of an order for whatever reason you can decline to accept it and while you could loose money it is better than the negative feelings of anger when someone rips you off.

Some businesses are more susceptable than others. Sometimes the fraud protection programs actually cost more than the fraud you would have incurred. This is certainly true for us.

A couple of years ago WorldPay stuck in a 6p per transaction fee for their compulsary fraud checks and this actaully cost us more than the fraud did. Very annoying.

The Verified by Visa program utilises pop ups in your checkout and looks like spyware to the untrained eye - it cost us sales and since we took it down we have had less abandoned carts. It is probably more valuable to businesses with a higher level of fraud.

But I would say about Worldpay that every time we have asked for a reduction in their fees and settlement period they have given us a better deal and you should ask them too before going to the hassle of finding another provider. They might surprise you since they would not wish to loose a successful merchant.

[gary]

Sometimes if you are suspicious of an order for whatever reason you can decline to accept it and while you could loose money it is better than the negative feelings of anger when someone rips you off.

Absolutely. Trust your instincts - you may be surprised how often you're right!

The Verified by Visa program utilises pop ups in your checkout and looks like spyware to the untrained eye - it cost us sales and since we took it down we have had less abandoned carts. It is probably more valuable to businesses with a higher level of fraud.

This is true, but simply by having it available you limit some of the liability you have for fraudulent transactions. Having a pop-up window is pretty useless since so many people block them automatically, but Worldpay are bringing in a new system next Easter apparently which will have this built in like a normal page.

But I would say about Worldpay that every time we have asked for a reduction in their fees and settlement period they have given us a better deal and you should ask them too before going to the hassle of finding another provider. They might surprise you since they would not wish to loose a successful merchant.

I must admit I have few complaints about Worldpay, and as you say they are prepared to offer reduced rates for good traders even if they're not the cheapest option. I would prefer to be able to customise it a little more though but hopefully their new system will have more flexibility.

[hairsoup]

I looked long and hard at securecode, and decided against it.

While I felt it was a good idea and will in time add confidence to online shoppers because few merchants seemed to have it, many shoppers would not be registered for it so I thought it would have a negative effect on cart abandonment. I decided to have a look at it again in a year or so when it might be more popular.

Hopefully not all merchants have thought like I have and it will be a standard within a few years.

[Rob Holmes]

Well - theres a few simple to do things like recording their IP address and then comparing it to the country the card is issued in.

Always take a phone number so you can call them to verify if you like.

Thats what we do.

Also we have set worldpay to block certain countries IP's and certain countries credit card billing addresses from paying through our system.

Works a treat.

Rob