Sorry, I know you guys prob read a million of these "on the TMF" threads.


Here's my scenerio.

About 1 year ago I had a merchant acct. for my online business through BofA.

Well anyways, about 6 months into having the account, we had three orders with different names placed over a period of two days.

They were processed and nothing more was thought of it, until the next day we had another three individual orders for the exact same items, except they were place under another 3 different totally different names.

Well, this caught our attention, so we called the phone numbers given and found out that these numbers were fake and the orders were fraudulent.

These orders/credit cards were never charged and the orders were cancelled.

We immediately checked the three orders from the previous days, and found out that these were in deed fraudulent as well..

Well, we worked with the Michigan police dept. to try and catch these individuals and get our merchandise back (which totalled about $2500.) We got some merchandise back and some not.

There was more than enough money to cover these charges and the true owners of these credit cards that these crooks used were reimberssed fully.



Well, after all of this, due to the chargeback ratio, our merchant acct. was terminated...


Now one year later, I've started a new company and am trying to get a new merchant account.

Well, I've just been informed that I was put on the TMF due to me losing the merchant acct. one year ago, due to too high chargebacks, resulting from that fraud that was inflicted..

I've been told that BofA is the only ones that can take me off this list, and if they don't, I will not be able to get another merchant account because I'm essentially "black balled."


I new nothing about the TMF until we recently (for this new business) tried to upgrade our paypal account to their new "paypal payments pro" merchant account and I turned up on the TMF list which caused them to not only not let me upgrade to the new "paypal payments" account, but they completely shutdown my paypal account now also....

I've had this paypal account for like 7 years... I'm assuming they reviewed my acct. due to the upgrade and I drew a red flag.

I called paypal and they said there is nothing they can do unless I'm taken off the list. BofA keeps giving me a sympathied "run around."


Is there anything I can do to get another merchant account?
Or do I have any grounds to fight being put on in the first place, or was I legitamitely put on the list?


I feel soooo used and screwed...

Not only did I have to pay out of pocket from the fraud I was hit with, but I also lost my merchant acct. and now I'm black balled from ever getting another one...

Ugh.


Is there anything I can do besides trying to get a merchant account in another trusted person's name?

Sorry about this long story...

ANY help/comments is GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks in advance. :bawling:

Most likely some 3rd party processors (have a look around at the E-Commerce Forums) will take you on without problems or you might get a offshore bank to issue you a "high risk" merchant account, I believe they don´t "care" about the TMF list if your pockets are deep enough, so spoken.

Unfortunately, you are correct in that BofA would be the only entity who could remove you from the TMF/MATCH list once you have been placed on it.

Do you owe them any money or have any kind of a balance remaining with them?

Welcome to the forums dl1010!

Talk to a few MAPs (merchant account processors). From what you have described, you possibly could get a merchant account. They might charge you a little more in the discount rate or require a hold back for 2-6 months, but this would help to build up your "processing history again".

Originally posted by cdgcommerce
Unfortunately, you are correct in that BofA would be the only entity who could remove you from the TMF/MATCH list once you have been placed on it.

Do you owe them any money or have any kind of a balance remaining with them?


Nope, I paid off everything immediately.

Since you do not owe anything, I would definitely try to get it in your name and not someone else's. This might / could cause more problems again in the future. Unless of course it is a partnership, and that might even be better.

But from what you have described, it will take a little doing and persistence. If you still have records from back then, even better - especially anything from the police department. This wil help to prove your case.

Each MAP is different and will review your case on its merits

There are a few US processors out there who will take people on the TMF. There are more options for direct accounts available with non-US processors or US processors that underwrite with non US banks. You could also go with a 3rd party processor. All of them would consider you on a case-by-case basis.

The ideal scenario would be to get BofA to take you off the TMF, but this is very difficult. If BofA didn't lose money on the account, you may be able to get them to write a letter stating that, even though they TMF'd you for excessive chargebacks, they incurred no loss on your account. This could aid you in getting a new account elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the fact that you were TMF'd a good time ago, it was for a totally different business, and you have not had a direct account since mitigates against most US, and some offshore banks, from wanting to give you an account.

If you go the route of having a partner open the merchant account, you might consider forming a corporation or creating a partnership agreement so that you have a legal document stating that they are a 50% partner in the business.

Originally posted by Corey Bryant
Since you do not owe anything, I would definitely try to get it in your name and not someone else's. This might / could cause more problems again in the future. Unless of course it is a partnership, and that might even be better.

But from what you have described, it will take a little doing and persistence. If you still have records from back then, even better - especially anything from the police department. This wil help to prove your case.

Each MAP is different and will review your case on its merits


Actually, I have every piece of information documented, including the police report from the detective I was working with, along with a documented statement sent to the Michigan police on the step by step procedures I took on how/what happened and how I went about in response to the situation.

When this happened I also called every credit card company (of the cards given, which was 3) to confirm that this was fraud and to report it to them that it was used by (the name of the customer I was given) and to apologize for not catching it before it was processed.

All of this information was faxed over to BofA last year.

Another thing I remember from the incident, was after the first two chargebacks, I was contacted by my merchant acct. rep from BofA and was warned that I have gone higher than the chargeback ratio that was agreed to in the merchant contract and in order to proceed with them as my merchant provider, they wanted me to state how I will prevent this from continuing to happen..

I told her on the phone and faxed over a document simply stating from now on, for every order, I will call the customer directly to confirm the purchase before processing the card..

She said that that would be fine and they would continue to be my MAP as long as I take these precautions for future purchases..

I then told her that there will still be one chargeback coming in due to the total of 3 fraudulent orders.. She understood.

Well, when the last chargeback came, I received a letter in the mail (from the same person) stating that they can no longer be my MAP, due to the chargeback ratio..

And I guess that's when I was TMF'ed.


I talked to BofA risk management 3 days ago, and they pulled up my file and said that I was extremely responsible for how I went about and handled that situation, and that they would get back with me on "if there was anything they could do."

Well, I didn't hear anything back, so I called them again today and got the dreaded "we'll call you back" in a sympathetic tone...
Still nothing.


Any suggestions or comments?

Originally posted by businessamerica
There are a few US processors out there who will take people on the TMF. There are more options for direct accounts available with non-US processors or US processors that underwrite with non US banks. You could also go with a 3rd party processor. All of them would consider you on a case-by-case basis.

The ideal scenario would be to get BofA to take you off the TMF, but this is very difficult. If BofA didn't lose money on the account, you may be able to get them to write a letter stating that, even though they TMF'd you for excessive chargebacks, they incurred no loss on your account. This could aid you in getting a new account elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the fact that you were TMF'd a good time ago, it was for a totally different business, and you have not had a direct account since mitigates against most US, and some offshore banks, from wanting to give you an account.

If you go the route of having a partner open the merchant account, you might consider forming a corporation or creating a partnership agreement so that you have a legal document stating that they are a 50% partner in the business.


Thanks for the great idea on havng BofA state that they didn't lose money on the situation.. I'll give that when I apply for another account.

Isn't Paypal considered a 3rd party provider? If so, any opinion/idea on why they won't look at my case and just said "there is no appeals process, and there is nothing they can do unless i'm taken off the list"?

I mean I've been with these guys about 7 years and have done thousands of transactions through them with not one single problem..:confused:

I mean I'm not leaving out anything, everything i said is exactly what happened.

What else could I have done instead of physically travelling backwards in time and not charge the cards in the first place?

Paypal is basically a 3PP. They will not look at your processing history and normally 2CO will not either. With 2CO, they sell your services / products and then usually pay every 1-2 weeks depending on your volume.

You can contact BofA and talk to them. They might consider taking you off. It depends on who you talk to, what kind of day they have had, etc. Since they did not lose any money, your chances are pretty good.

Just curious - did they close your checking account as well?

Actually PayPal did look at the TMF, cause I lost the paypal account, but that was I'm sure due to the upgrade caused them to review my account.

Yeah I still have the BofA business checking account. That was never closed or anything.


Actually, to be honest, I'm not sure if they lost any money or not.

The money that went into my checking account from the charged cards wasn't even touched, so when they charged back the customer's cards that were used fraudulently the money was all there to go back.

Do they still lose money on this?

That is possible. Every merchant is different with all accounts. There is no scientific answer unfortunately. It is never black and white, there are thousands of shades of grey when it comes to this.

If the money was still there and money to cover charge backs, it sounds like BofA was taken care of. But you would have to review your statements to verify that

Yeah, there was sufficient money in the account to cover everything, and I know for a fact that I don't owe them / didn't owe them any money.

In fact when I opened the merchant account I had a CD with 10 thousand backing the account (BofA required it) to cover anything like this, and nothing from the CD was touched after everything was finalized.


Was I legitimately put on the TMF?

Even though it stands for "terminated merchant file", just because the account was terminated, does that mean that they have grounds or not just that, but have to add me to the list as a requirement they agreed to by Visa/MC when they became a MAP?


Because I'm under the assumption that this list is for individuals that continue to have bad business practices, or even commit fraud themselves, and not for a company that made one mistake and did everything they could in order to try and compensate for that mistake.

I mean isn't the whole "blackballed" theory behind the list basically a warning to all other MAPs that this person is very high risk and in a sense a way for the MAPs and Visa/MC to imply "well, you screwed us, now we're gonna screw you"?:stickout:

Every processor is different. I cannot speak for BofA because I have not personally dealt with them and anything that I say is second-hand and against the forum rules here.

You can be placed on the TMF list for almost any reason the MAP seems fit. As I have said and the others, if you explain your situation to another MAP and especially about the fact they required a $10,000 deposit basically, you have a good chance to getting another account.

In the past day, have you contact BofA to find out if they will take you off this list?

Isn't Paypal considered a 3rd party provider?

There's nothing stopping any processor, US, offshore, or 3PP, form taking a merchant who is on the TMF other than their unwillingness to take risk and their unwillingness to buck the Card Associations. The Card Associations strongly discourage the underwriting of TMF merchants, and the vast majority of processors, particularly US processors, don't want to draw their scrutiny over it. They have plenty of other non-TMF business they can write. A lot of offshore banks and 3PPs (and a more limited number of US processors) can't afford to be as choosy (or feel its in their interest from a profitability standpoint), so they are more willingly to underwrite TMF merchants. PayPal has more access to low-risk business than most 3PPs, so they behave more like a US processor that doesn't feel the need to go after that segment of the market.

However, even if a provider is willing to consider a TMF merchant, they are still going to take a hard look at the risk aspect.Was I legitimately put on the TMF?

This is where you start getting into case-by-case analysis. When you are put on the TMF, there should be a reason that goes with the listing "excessive chargebacks" is very common, but there are others like "violation of merchant agreement", "fraud", etc. Some are better reasons than others. "Excessive chargebacks" is a legitimate reason, but it covers a lot ground. Excessive CBs can be caused by fraud on the part of the merchant, the merchant being a victim of fraud, a failure to delivery product (for whatever reason, bad supplier, etc.), lack of customer service or customer satisfaction, selling a product that is just prone to chargebacks, etc.

Typically, if you can explain to a processor why chargebacks occurred, what is being done differently to reduce/eliminate them, and provide documentation supporting/proving your version of events, then you will have a fighting chance of convincing them of taking you, despite TMF status. If you can't, the processor will usually err on the side of caution and decline you.

In your case, it is definitely harder to present a strong case for approval when things have happened so far in the past, with a totally different company, and there has been a long break in the processing history.

One very important aspect to this discussion concerns the motivation of a processor to place - and keep - a merchant on the TMF/MATCH and it is due to the liability that exists if they fail to do so.

Specifically, if a merchant processor has grounds to place a merchant on the TMF/MATCH list and they FAIL to do so - they can become LIABLE if a subsequent, unrelated merchant processor takes on that very same merchant and suffers a financial loss as a result.

In other words, it is a matter of "CYA" in certain instances for a processor to be diligent in placing a merchant on the TMF/MATCH list because failure to do so could result in them incurring a liability from a second processor (who isn't even related to them) who underwrites the account and takes a financial hit.

There is a list of acceptable reason codes to place a merchant on the TMF/MATCH list but like Dave mentions above... some are more specific and obvious and others are a bit vague and open to interpretation.

My suggestion is to talk directly to the risk department at BofA and prepare a very nice and detailed "dog and pony show" to show them that you don't represent a risk of loss, that you just had some bad luck in the past and have learned from it and you really need their help in getting removed from the list - especially since you didn't cause them any financial loss.

Unfortunately, there is often very little motivation for a processor to de-list someone once they have been placed on the list for the reason that I mention above. When they ask themselves, "what's in it for me?" the answer is usually: nothing.