Credit cards are all about money and money is the greatest attraction for fraudsters. There are many online shops on the Internet and the overwhelming majority of them accept online payments via credit cards and over the phone. Basically all online business owners use different online payment gateways which process payments before they are transferred to his/her merchant account. Leading payment gateway companies guarantee fraud prevention but still credit card fraud rates increase every day, as well as the number of chargebacks.

Any online business owner knows that chargebacks are one of the main ecommerce risks which result in considerable loss of money (each chargeback includes total cost of original order plus merchant-bank fee of $5 to $35 per transaction). Mainly credit card fraud takes place because merchants fail to use the Address Verification Service which verifies the billing and shipping information provided on checkout page and on your website and credit card owner’s identity. The “funniest” thing is that although leading payment gateway companies provide AVS for free, many merchants don’t bother with it. Moreover many merchants don’t even require the card verification code from their customers, despite the well-known fact that AVS and Card Verification Code are the best options for combating credit card fraud.

In case you accept payment over the phone, it’s a must for you to request ALL credit card information: card owner’s name (including middle name or middle name initial), 16 digits displayed on the card, credit card verification number, credit card expiration date and billing address (only full address not a post office box number). This is a kind of AVS which you can perform yourself to protect your business from fraud. In majority of cases, fraudsters have only the credit card number and no other information associated with true credit card holder.

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