Big Scammers

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

What is Online Payment Fraud and How to Protect Your Business From It

Online payment fraud has become a common phenomenon in the World Wide Web. Today consumers do a big chunk of their shopping through e-commerce sites. Transactions worth billions of dollars are made on a daily basis. To that effect, one would have to learn to expect the possibility of fraud since scammers always tend to be where the money is.
Online business are prone to different types of online payment fraud. Scammers who pose as a customer go to great lengths to devise elaborate scams which enables them take advantage of loopholes present in modern day payment systems. Here is a look at ways in which scammers indulge in fraud while using web based shopping sites. 
 
Credit Card Online Payment Fraud  
The is the most common form of online payment fraud when it comes to e-commerce sites. Here the scammers use stolen credit card details to make a series of purchases. Depending upon the scam, the cyber criminal may have access or not to the CVV security numbers. If they do not have access, they will try their luck by punching in numbers at random which could lead to a number of failed transactions on the site. To protect your business from such criminals, keep a limit on the number of failed transactions. And also make sure that people have to type in their CVV number at the end of a transaction which simply adds another layer of security.

Tracking Orders  
A lot of scammers use sometimes simple methods to carry out their scams. They will indulge in online payment fraud by placing orders for a certain item. Once the product has been delivered, they will call up the company and say that they didn’t receive delivery. This is why, modern e commerce sites use tracking systems to provide regular updates on shipment details and also ensure to get the signature of the customer when the product is delivered.
IP Address and Profiling 
You may sometimes need to use GEO location tagging technology to IP addresses of customers whose shipping address is completely different to their billing address so much so that they might happen to be from different countries. Such people must be monitored closely for online payment fraud. On the other hand, these person might have just wanted to present a gift to a friend or relative staying abroad which would of course require different addresses. So it is important to monitor such purchases since it could be either bogus or genuine. 
Security 
System security is one of the most important attributes to successfully preventing fraud. Hackers always look to break into servers owned by e-commerce companies. The servers of course store credit card information of thousands of customers and when this data gets leaked, it leaves them severely vulnerable to online payment fraud. And the issue is a lot worse than one can imagine since the scammer may not directly use the credit cards for his own personal gain but might sell the details on the dark web for thousands of dollars. Now many people may have access to these credit card details making the possibility of the online payment fraud even the more dangerous. 
In such an instance, you should think about how vulnerable your business would become. You would be fighting multiple lawsuits from customers and you might have to pay out huge amounts to cover the losses. Instead, it makes better sense to invest in top grade security facilities for your site. Make sure that the sites security is fully complaint with the safeguards of the payment industry. If possible also hire a team of tech experts who will monitor your site for suspicious activity.