During the last few years there has been an increase in online
fraudulent 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, which 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 fraudulent 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.
Below are advice and tips for credit card customers or buyers
when receiving an e-mail that may be fraudulent:
1. Buyers need to be cautious about e-mails that offer credit services because
many unsolicited e-mails are fraudulent. Buyers also should not simply click on
Internet hyperlinks within received e-mails. Instead, buyers can type in the
known URL into the address bar of the web browser.
2. Buyers need to be wary of e-mails which offer prizes or discounts and then
asking them to choose a User ID and Password. Most people use the same access
information for several accounts because they are easier to remember. The
thieves will collect your login information and try them at other sites, like
financial institutions or credit-card sites.
3. Buyers should never respond to e-mails that request for credit card
information and also do not ever respond to e-mails that ask them to go to a
website to verify personal (and credit card) information. If buyers have doubts
about the authenticity of an e-mail, do not respond to the e-mail.
Alternatively, they can call the sender to verify or manually type in the web
address.
4. Buyers need to be wary of e-mails with a sense of urgency which attempts to
rush buyers into action. For example, “Update now or we’ll close your account…
…” Please note that fraudulent e-mails often include misspelling and poor
grammar within the e-mails.
In other hand, below are advice and tips for Merchants when
dealing with Credit Card customers in an internet transaction:
1. Merchants must be wary of unusually large orders from customers.
2. Merchants should also be wary of orders shipped to a single billing address
but purchased with multiple credit cards. Besides this, also be wary of
multiple transactions made with similar card numbers in a sequence.
3. Merchants have to be wary of orders which ask for express, rush or overnight
shipping because these are the shipping of choice for many credit card
fraudsters. Merchants need to call the customer to confirm the order first.
4. For overseas orders, especially if the order exhibits any of the
characteristics noted above, merchants must be wary of them. This is because
credit card fraudulent may not be entirely preventable, but by establishing and
following procedures to check every credit card transaction, merchant can cut
down the credit card fraudulent losses.
Additionally, below are advice and tips for both Credit card
customers and Merchants when purchasing items over the Internet:
1. Buyers and merchants must not open e-mails from unknown senders. Merchants
should not simply process credit card orders that originate from free e-mail
addresses or from e-mail forwarding addresses. In such cases, merchants should
ask the buyer for an ISP or domain-based e-mail address that can be traced back
before processing the order.
2. Buyers must only give their credit card details to reliable websites which
are from reputable companies. In addition, reputable merchant sites usually use
encryption technologies to protect credit card information.
3. Merchant should not process credit card orders unless the credit card
information of that buyer is complete. If the shipping address and the billing
address on the order are different, merchants need to call the buyer to confirm
the order. Merchants may even want to make it a policy to ship only to the
billing address on the credit card.
4. Buyers must be very careful with to whom to give personal identification
information, such as mother’s maiden name and social security number. Buyers
have to ask if the information can be kept confidential and inquire how it will
be used and with whom will the information be shared.
5. Buyer also must never send account information, such as account numbers or
PIN in an e-mail as it may be intercepted.
Besides of the advice and tips on how to prevent credit card
fraudulent above, buyers and merchants are also able to apply fraudulent
detection web services such as FraudLabs™ Credit Card Fraud Detection Web
Service from FraudLabs™ in order to reduce credit card fraudulent.
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