What Business Owners Can Do To Prevent Fraud
The Better Business Bureau is working to remind businesses to continue to be vigilant about stolen credit cards being used at their establishments.
With the holiday season right around the corner, officials with the BBB are worried that their will be more instances when crooks try to steal credit card information.
If you are the owner, they suggest that you review your credit card companies agreement with you about who is responsible for fraudulent charges.
One of the biggest things you can do is make sure you have set up a standards about how you will work to prevent fraud, and you should make sure that everyone on your staff knows what the rules are.
There are some things you should look for that might be signs of trouble. The BBB suggests the following: Some other suggestions from the Better Business Bureau include:
- Rush orders for a bunch of merchandise that are very expensive, and they request that the items be sent to a different address or overseas.
- Transactions with similar account numbers.
- Transactions with multiple cards with everything going to the same address.
- Multiple transactions on one credit card that happens over a brief period of time.
- Multiple cards used from a single IP address.
- Orders that lack all their contact information, and/or customers who refuse to give any information.
The Better Business Bureau says in order to protect yourself and your customers, you should do everything you can to make sure the person using the card is authorized to do so.
If you suspect that something isn't right, here are some things you can do about it:
- Contact your credit card merchant to report any unusual activity.
- Try to obtain the name, address, and phone number for the cardholder if it’s not already provided.
- Implement a policy in your online ordering process that requires customers to enter the 3-digit security code number from the back of their credit card to complete the ordering process.
- Attempt to verify the billing address provided by calling the merchant bank. If the address provided doesn't match the address of the cardholder, don’t authorize the shipment.
- Implement a fraud detection service that blocks suspicious transactions. Some may charge a fee, and you will want to check who is compatible with your vendors and which product/service works best for you.
- Use an address verification service (AVS) to freeze an order when the billing address entered doesn't match the billing address on record for the cardholder.
- Try and reach the customer using the phone number provided. If you cannot reach the cardholder, delay the shipment until you are able to do so.
- Investigate the address and/or phone number of any suspicious orders using reliable websites to verify a street address. In the United States, you can use the USPS website.
- Report a suspicious transaction to the credit card merchant as well as local law enforcement.