Reducing Fraudulent Transations ? 5 Simple Ways To Protect Yourself

The money being spent online is steadily growing. With billions of dollars being spent each year online, the opportunity to make money on the internet has never been bigger. Unfortunately, with that opportunity come people who want to make money in less than honest ways. We're going to look at some concrete ways you can identify fraudulent transactions and save yourself a lot of chargeback fees, money and grief.

Get more information from prospective customers.

The more information you have to work with, the better your chances are that you will be able to positively identify fraudulent transactions. At the very least, you need to make sure you get a customer's name, credit card billing address, phone number and the IP address of the computer currently accessing the order form. You should also get a valid email address. This email address should not be one that comes from a free email service.

Fraudulent transactions occur more frequently from certain countries.

The first thing you should know is that certain countries are more prone to fraudulent transactions than others. If you get an order originating from one of the following countries, you should be suspicious and do more digging. Some of these countries include: Ukraine, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco, Vietnam, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Israel, Iran, Cameroon, Gambia, and Ghana. This doesn't mean that every transaction from any of these countries is definitely fraudulent. But you should be very suspicious.

Confirm the address of the customer.

The first thing I do when I get an online order is to check the phone number of the customer against a reverse phone number directory. The majority of my orders come from the United States and Canada. Phone numbers from these countries can usually be entered into reverse directories to find out the address that phone number belongs to. If I can't get a match for the phone number it servers as a red flag and warrants more investigation.

Lookup the customer's country and city of origin

I've already outlined a long list of countries that should be suspicous to you. How do you determine if your customer placed the order from within one of these banned countries? Simple. You cross reference their IP address with an IP lookup database that can tell you what country they are in. The city they are from and sometimes even ISP they use! If you handle only a few orders a day, you can use an excellent free service at IP2Location.com. If you do handle more volume, IP2Location.com also offers subscription packages at various prices.

Once you determine the country of origin, if it doesn't match the country the customer listed with their billing information be very careful. Yes, it is possible that your customer could be travelling away from home. It is much more likely that their credit card information has been stolen and it is being used fraudulently. A mismatch between the country reported by IP and the billing address is a big red flag.

Don't let customers use free email addresses.

A free email address is so easy to setup at most free email services. The odds of your being able to track down the person that registered that free email address are next to none. If at all possible, block all known free email services. The most common include Hotmail, Yahoo, Mail.com, and Gmail. If you can't block free email addresses in advance, consider a free email address a red flag. A utility you can use to determine if an email address is a known free email is dnsstuff.com. Look towards the bottom left of the page that comes up.

Don't ship a product until you are sure.

If two or more red flags go up, beware. If you ship a product from a fraudulent transaction, you will very likely be slapped with a chargeback from your credit card company and lose the money from the good. Be skeptical of all orders until everything checks out to your satisfaction. If in doubt, refund the purchase. Too many chargebacks will result in the cancellation of your merchant account. Who needs that?

A little diligence can go a long way to helping you prevent loses from fraudulent transactions. With a little knowledge, you can greatly reduce lost profits due to fraud.

This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, Yowling offers free ecommerce shopping carts with their web hosting plans. Copyright 2005 Yowling. Reprint Freely as long as you provide a clickable link back to my website from this resource box.

---

From Spyware with Love!

It's late. You've been scouring the web for that perfect... Read More

Computer-Virus Writers: A Few Bats In The Belfry?

"Male. Obsessed with computers. Lacking a girlfriend. Aged 14 to... Read More

3 Steps to Ending Scams and Virus Problems

Watching how the traditional media covers the latest virus or... Read More

Its War I Tell You!

There are ways to insure security though. You can get... Read More

How Can Someone Get Private Information From My Computer?

From the "Ask Booster" column in the June 17, 2005... Read More

Firewall Protection - Does Your Firewall Do This?

The first thing people think about when defending their computers... Read More

Secure Your PC From Hackers, Viruses, and Trojans

Viruses, Trojans and Spyware: Protecting yourself.No user on the internet... Read More

Burning Bridges is Bad, But Firewalls are Good

When you signed up for that ultra-fast DSL or Cable... Read More

Firewalls: What They Are And Why You MUST Have One!

A firewall is a system or gateway that prevents unauthorized... Read More

All About Computer Viruses

Your computer is as slow as molasses. Your mouse freezes... Read More

Spyware, What It Is, What It Does, And How To Stop It

Spyware is software that runs on a personal computer without... Read More

3 Things You Must Know About Spyware

1)Spyware is on your system. Like it or not, statistically... Read More

Identity Theft Offline -- So Many Possibilities

Chris Simpson, head of Scotland Yard's computer crime unit was... Read More

Be Alert! Others Can Catch Your Money Easily!

So called phishers try to catch the information about the... Read More

The Truth About Hiding Your Tracks on the Internet

Ok, ok, I know you've seen them. All those pop... Read More

Breaking Into Your PC: News...

You'd better learn news from media, not from emails, security... Read More

How to Prevent Online Identity Theft

Identity theft rates one of the fastest growing crimes in... Read More

Traditional Antivirus Programs Useless Against New Unidentified Viruses!

Every now and then you can read about a new... Read More

If You Steal It, They May Come!

Business on the internet is getting down right shameless. This... Read More

Preventing Online Identity Theft

Identity theft is one of the most common criminal acts... Read More

Email Hoaxes, Urban Legends, Scams, Spams, And Other CyberJunk

The trash folder in my main inbox hit 4000 today.... Read More

Computer Viruses and Other Nasties: How to Protect Your Computer from These Invaders

Can you protect your computer from all possible viruses and... Read More

The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore

The internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource for families and... Read More

5 Simple Steps to Protect your Digital Downloads

A couple of days ago, I was searching for a... Read More

Criminals are Fishing For Your Identity

What is Phishing? In a typical Phishing attack, a criminal... Read More

Corporate Security for Your Home Business

The words Corporate Security may conjure up images of a... Read More

Spyware Attacks! Windows Safe Mode is No Longer Safe

Many of us have run into an annoying and time-consuming... Read More

40 Million People Hacked - YOU as Identity Theft Victim

Saturday, MasterCard blamed a vendor of ALL credit card providers... Read More

Is The Internet Over Regulated

Today's Internet or World Wide Web is being over regulated.But,... Read More

Everything You Need To Know About Spyware and Malware

You are at your computer, checking out software on EBay.... Read More

How to Fight Spyware

If you are wondering how to fight spyware for safe... Read More

Top Five Online Scams

The top five online scams on the Internet hit nearly... Read More

What to Look for before You Purchase Spyware Software

Huge number of spyware software applications are available in the... Read More