Best Practices to Prevent Credit Card Fraud

In the world of credit cards and non-cash sales, fraud is something you find everywhere, from people using stolen credit card information to purchase goods or services, to others abusing the chargeback system to get refunds without returning a product. Unfortunately, you cannot stop all forms of fraud (even cash and checks have fraud risk). But there are things you can do to help reduce your risk and its impact on your business:

• Collect a signature on larger transactions. While the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, etc.), and therefore Koble Payments, do not require signatures as it's not considered a valid method of validating the person using the card, the simple act of asking for one on larger transactions may help to deter would-be fraudsters, and in some very rare cases an arbitrator might take a signature into account if it’s a near perfect match (but it’s not a guarantee). You can manually request a signature on a sales order in EBMS at any time before the sales order is processed.
• Require that the billing and shipping address match. Especially in situations where you have not worked with the customer before, requiring that the shipping and billing address match can help mitigate potential fraud, as someone who is using stolen information isn't likely to ship to the customer they stole the information from.
• Camera systems. If someone says that they didn't come into your store and make the purchase, you can match the date/time stamp on the transaction to the footage of the register and see who made the purchase.
• Request an ID for large purchases. For large purchases, asking to match the ID to the card information used can be useful to validate the customer is the one actually making the purchase. Making a copy of the license can also help as you would have evidence to help prove your case in the event of fraud.
• Require a signature for delivery of goods. Especially on large transactions, collecting a signature upon delivery can help validate that someone actually received the product(s) which reduces the risk of claims of that they didn’t receive the goods
• Take a picture of delivery. Having evidence of the delivery, where it was left, etc. can help strengthen your case in the event of a dispute.
• Train your staff to look out for suspicious sales. The human element of identifying odd transactions can be very helpful and cannot be overlooked. If you or an employee feels like something is off (suspiciously large transaction, buying behavior not exhibited by your usual customer base, etc.), pausing and validating the transaction with the customer in the moment (or before fulfilling in the case of o nline orders) can help.

Sometimes a Chargeback is used not for fraud, but for other reason (sometimes called “Friendly Fraud”. This can be for legitimate things (like the merchant not responding to inquiries or refund requests), or because the customer just wants something for free. In addition to the steps above, there are a few other things you can do to help reduce these types of chargebacks:

• Make customer service your number one priority. Happy customers are less likely to try and issue a chargeback. Be responsive, polite, and work with the customer to get an issue resolved.
• Check your statement descriptor in Koble Payments. Sometimes the legal entity name of your business is different from what customers know you as. Updating your statement descriptor to display how customers will know your business can help reduce chargebacks due to a misunderstanding of where the charge originated. You can reach out to the Koble Support Team to help with this if needed.