|
During the last few years there has been an increase in online fraud of global scope and geometrically increasing proportions. There are now actual companies that specialize in spam and other illegal marketing techniques, like Phishing and Hacking, that take every opportunity to make a few pennies. Even though their net income per person is miniscule, it becomes significant when multiplied by hundreds of thousands or even millions. Added to this threat are the man amateur fraud artists around the world who troll the Internet for credit card and financial information to use for fraudulent purposes. Finally, identity thieves are reaping high rewards at the expense of both the target and the online retailer.
Credit card fraud on the Internet has reached gigantic proportions, and the merchants providing goods and services over the net are suffering tremendous losses through chargebacks from the financial institutions who serve the targeted credit card holders. Merchants who offer a product or service online have to take the risk of losing the cost of the product sold online, plus the added cost of chargeback fees, and they even face the possibility of having their merchant account terminated by the financial institutions serving them. While this cost can ultimately be passed on to the consumer, the development of this environment hurts business as a whole, and particularly hurts the small business owner. The Cybersource® Online Fraud Report showed Internet fraud had cost merchants $2.6 billion, or 1.8% of total online revenues, in 2004.
The purpose of this document is to introduce 10 preventative measures that merchants can take in order to minimize credit card fraud. In addition, we would like to take this opportunity to introduce a complete suite of FraudLabs™ Web Services specializing in the analysis of credit card fraud risk for Internet merchants.
[ download this White Paper (PDF) ]
|
