Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Report credit card fraud...

[peachtreewebworks]

I've gotten some "obviously" fraudulent credit card orders lately and I'm planning on sending a letter to the cardholders letting them know someone tried to use their card.

Is there a way to report this to some agency as well, such as Visa or MasterCard so they can take action, or I am doing enough just letting the card holder know?

Thanks,
Michael

[Marcus]

Michael,
that would be a good idea, not only because it would save the cardholder major problems but it would lead to cancellation of the card much faster and this would save other merchants from falling for the same fraud.
However just out of curiosity if you identified the transaction as a fraud using the details supplied, how are you going to get the actually cardholders details to contact them...

[peachtreewebworks]

The people placing the orders are from outside the US, trying to register a non-US domain, but, providing a valid credit card number, a US name and US billing address.

I figure the billing address is probably matched with the card number properly, so I was going to use that address.

[ngaihua]

1. Could it be that the person saw potential in the domain name value and purchased it like many cyber squatters do?

2. Wouldn't it be dumb to purchase domain name with other people's CC since you won't own it after all.

Don't see how one can benefit from using stolen CC to register a domain name since he can't do much with it before it being discovered and suspended.

Gary

[ngaihua]

3. An American businessman working in a foreign country who figured out he'll need web presence in that country soon.

Gary

[big_smooth]

You live in the US..Your brother, sister, cousin, mother etc... lives in another country. That famil member/friend has a business in the foreign country and wishes to have a website, but does not have the knowhow to do it.

He/She asks american familymember/friend to do it for them..??

[peachtreewebworks]

I can think of other reasons as well - I'm not suggesting that EVERY order that has a foreign address but US billing address is fraudulent.

I'm just saying that it raises a flag - When I email the person who placed the order and never receive a response, it just furthers my suspicions.

I did receive a phone call from one of the card holders that I wrote to and she was extremely grateful that I contacted her - She in fact did not place the order and called her bank immediately to report the fraud

[Get-Hosted.com]

Too bad they don't prosecute for CC fraud. They don't consider it worth their time.

[Brad]

Originally posted by Get-Hosted.com
Too bad they don't prosecute for CC fraud. They don't consider it worth their time.

You'd be surprised what you can do yourself with a little effort. Last year we got an operation busted because we picked up the phone and called the police dept. in the city the delivery was to be sent to on the order form.

We suspected a possible bad transaction, sometimes you can just tell, big order, different shipping address, etc. We talked to a detective, they staked out the house and it ended up to be a large operation which took down people from 3 states, it was SO COOL!!!

This is not a hosting company though.

If you suspect something is wrong call their phone number on the order first. Nine times out of 10 you will not get the right person, we have called and gotten mechanics garages (nobody knew who the person was), disconnected phones, pay phones, etc. Then call the banks number if you have it and they will usually tell you if something looks wrong.

It's always best to do things manually for new customers if you have the time and energy. Automatic payments are nice but you need to keep an eye on the new transactions you get and it allows you more control to check the order first before processing.

I hate CC fraud!

[Alareach]

I have one customer (former reseller) who signed up under several accounts, got about 20 of them, and about 4 months later I got over $300 in chargebacks (spread out amongst all of the accounts) I got rid of all of his accounts, but even today, he still tries to sign up for service using US names, addresses and card numbers. He is in romaina.

Is this hopeless?

I keep having to close accounts and refund them a day after when I notice where the sign up is from. I use an automatted sign up form so he gets an account and I have to notice it. There have been 3 attempts since he was cancelled 2 mos ago.

AH

[peachtreewebworks]

Originally posted by Alareach

I keep having to close accounts and refund them a day after when I notice where the sign up is from. I use an automatted sign up form so he gets an account and I have to notice it. There have been 3 attempts since he was cancelled 2 mos ago.

AH

Thats where you have to make a judgement call between allowing users to have instant account activation and having to wait for you to manually process the sign-up!

Michael

[asimbaig]

there is no way to stop these frauds..
for survice in e-commerce society we have to face these problems.. if somebudy knows how to reduce it, let me know.....
i m also facing these problems day by day...

right there is no way secure except paypal..... but the problem of paypal is that they are not offering their services for many countries....

[drhonk]

There is one way to stop credit card fraud. It's not an effective way to do it but at least it can prevent it quite a bit. By using CVV check ( the last 3 numbers on the back of the card ) on every order.

I don't think all merchant accounts support this yet, but I know some people who does this told me that it has stopped credit card fraud drastically.

[Get-Hosted.com]

If someone has the stolen credit card the CVV is a waste. Seems like a Great solution though, anyone know if Authorize.net will support this? I know paypal requires it when entereing CC into the system.

[microsol]

Yeah Worldpay also does support it now