How to Check Orders for Fraud
When you receive an order you are excited! You now have a new customer and are X dollars richer, but what if this purchase was done with a stolen credit card or hacked Paypal account? In a few months the person will contest it or use Paypal to take it back and you will have provided a possible scammer or spammer with web hosting. If you get a lot of charge backs this can also cause a rise in your rates at your credit card merchant, thus loosing you money. The answer? Screen for fraud constantly and if it doesn't feel right call and verify the order.
IP That Placed Order Doesn't Match Billing Address
Pretty obvious right? You would be amazed by how many people ignore this simple check. If you get an order from Matt Jones who lives in a small town Virginia and the IP address is from Germany or Romania it’s pretty obvious something is wrong. You will need to call and verify the order via phone or just void it. Hopefully you have order software that provides the IP that ordered the package so you can look that up using IP Whois at DNS Stuff or a similar service. There are also many sites that map an IP to a location but keep in mind these are not as accurate as an IP Whois. Billing software such as ModernBill can be setup to provide this info along with the order.
Email Address on the Order
This is another great way to tell if the order is fraud, check the email on the order and see if it is from a free provider and what name is used. If the email is
john.doe@gmail.com and the order is from John Doe then it is usually a good order, but if the order is from Matt Smith and the email is
Lee@FreeEmailVietnam.com you probably have a problem.
Order Amount
If the order is for six months or a year up front be suspicious especially if they didn't ask any pre sales questions. This is not as common but usually frauders try to buy a longer period since they know the credit card will be reported and are hoping that the one charge might sneak by on the bill.
Formatting of the Information
Does the information such as name and address appear to be formatted correctly? Frauders don't take the time to upper case their names or the right places of the address and state. Or they might just use all caps. Watch for both as they are good indicators the order is bad or from a lazy person. If you have a place on the order form for a company name and they fill that in that is usually a good indication they are real. Not many frauders take the time to fill that in.
Conclusion
Fraud can be avoided and never underestimate just calling all your new customers if you are a small enough company. This can be a great way to touch base, see how people are doing, and impress them with your customer service. This can also lead to better information about your clients such as what they are looking for and how they found you. This guide should help you prevent fraud and just use your common sense. If it’s too good to be true call them to verify. Not many people get upset if you call to verify their credit card or Paypal account in order to protect them.
Hope it helps,
Thanks, Ben
<<Snipped commercial link>>
Linear Mode
