The ‘Ten Commandments’ for online credit card fraud prevention

1) When overnight Shipping is the preferred choice of the customer, the transaction needs to be scrutinized; the reason for opting for overnight shipping by Mr../Ms. Fraud is to prevent the extra scrutiny the transaction may attract.

2) A peek on the phone number and email address entered by the customer, first the area code should be in conformity with the city and the state, if the email address is from a free web based domain and the name in the user Id of the email account is different than the one entered in the billing address, close scrutiny is required for such accounts.

3) Identify the source through which the visitor landed on the website, for instance Yahoo, My Store’s order provides information on the search phrase used by the visitor, fraudsters use search phrases like “overnight delivery” or “international shipping” in the search as key words instead of products.

4) Identify the computer IP address which is unique, just like a postal address, if the Geo location of the computer is in a country such as Nigeria etc, extra scrutiny should be observed, there is a watch list of countries through which most of the Internet fraud originates.

5) If the shipping address has a Post Office Box and not a regular address, it is a matter for scrutiny, while Google map is an important source for address verifications; it is limited to locations in few countries.

6) The other most common feature for verification which is the address mismatch, if the shipping address is different than the billing address, the telephone number in the billing address needs to be called and the order placed online has to be summarized to the customer, clearly mentioning the different shipping address, for extra caution do not ship merchandise to shipping address which is different than the billing address.

7) If a same customer has placed multiple orders, using the same credit card and a common shipping address, there is reason for suspicion, check out the telephone number of the customer available with the credit card Company, and make a verification call to the telephone number.

8) Always scrutinize large orders; if an order value exceeds the average billing amounts of day-to-day customers, it needs to be investigated.

9) If a customer has placed orders for multiple quantities of the same product, in all probability it could be a fraudulent order, telephone verification is mandatory.

10) If the order form filled by the customer has grammar, typing or punctuation errors, it cannot be grounds for suspicion but basic scrutiny is advised for these orders.

It is difficult for online merchant stores to scrutinize all aspects of a transaction in a detailed methodology, there are bound to be errors of judgment, but if professional vendors are hired to scrutinize Card-not-Present transactions, as a back office operation, Credit Card Fraud can be prevented to a great extent.