With more businesses starting to trade and receive payments online, there are greater opportunities for credit card fraud. You need to be particularly careful when the card is not present in transactions such as phone, email and online orders.
1. Watch out for warning signs
One of these signs may not be cause for alarm, but it is worth paying special attention if one or more of these things happen:
- Large unusual transactions from unknown buyers. If they’re in your store you could ask for additional identification to make sure they are the true cardholder
- Payment with many credit cards with similar or sequential numbers
- Rush orders that need overnight or express shipping
- High volume of transactions on a card over short periods of time
- Transfer of funds to a transaction account or money transfer agency.
2. Take extra precaution
If you're unsure a transaction is legitimate you can take some extra steps to validate the order:
- Call the customer to confirm the details of the order
- Use a security program such as MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa - these are an easy and cost-effective way to authenticate a cardholder at the point of purchase with a password
- Reject any order you’re still suspicious of.
3. Educate staff
Developing your team’s knowledge in identifying and preventing credit card fraud could potentially save you costs in future. Some ideas include:
- Train your employees to look out for suspicious transactions (outlined above).
- Keep up to date with latest scams
- Advise staff of the consequences of credit card fraud for the impacted customers and business. Customers may not have access to their funds for extended periods and businesses could be liable for purchases made on a compromised card
- Protect and limit the impact of fraud on your business by sharing our merchant fraud protection tips with employees
4. Get in touch with us
If you suspect fraud has occurred contact us on 1800 230 177 at any time. Our merchant services team will be available to support you.
