Protecting Yourself Against Fraud

There are two main ways your store is at risk:

·      People intercepting card details - Some people raise concerns about credit card details being intercepted whilst they are transmitted over the Internet. Using SSL on your store will protect your customers from this. There are more details on this in Securing Your Online Store.

·      People using stolen/invalid card details - This is much more of a risk. When you take credit cards on the Internet, it is a 'Customer Not Present' transaction. This means there is a possibility that the person making the purchase is not who they say they are. This section gives you some suggestions for protecting yourself from this.

Limited By Location

Certain countries in the world carry higher risks of credit card fraud then others. Therefore, you way want to only offer credit-card transactions to certain countries.

Within 'Business Settings | Payment and Security' you can highlight a payment method and then select 'Limited by Location'. Then click 'Configure Valid Locations' to open the 'Edit Payment Method Regions and Locations' window. This allows you set up which locations you want to offer the payment method to. The settings within this area are as follows:

Field	Meaning
Valid Regions and Locations	This is the list of valid locations that will be able to pay by this particular payment method. To add new members, highlight a region or location and click '<'. To remove a region or location, highlight one and click '>'.
Available Regions	Regions are groups of countries/states that you group together. To create a new region, select 'Add'. You can also edit a region by highlighting a region and selecting 'Edit'. To remove a region, highlight one and select 'Delete'. When you click either 'Add' or 'Edit' you see the 'Edit Regions' window. Name - Type the name of your payment region - the region name will not appear on any documentation. Members - The members of your payment region are in the left-hand column. All the available countries/states are listed in the right-hand column. Click the '<' button to add countries/states into your region. Click the '>' button to remove a member. A country/state can be a member of more than one region. For information on editing the content of this list, go to Changing The List Of Countries And States.
Available Locations	This is an ungrouped list of all the available countries/states. For information on editing the content of this list, go to Changing The List Of Countries And States.

Code 10 Check

Once you receive a credit card number, you can call the bank that your merchant account is with and request a 'Code 10 Check'. This will verify the credit card number given against the delivery address that was provided.

Some Payment Service Providers offer an online address check called the 'Address Verification System' ('AVS'). Please consult with your PSP in order to find out whether they offer this service.