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Softcart FAQ |
Do your E-commerce products provide a fraud-protection guarantee?
While there are several precautions merchants can take to prevent loss from fraud, our E-commerce plans (that utilize SoftCart software, Clearcommerce, Cybercash, and other such products) do not provide a "guarantee" for preventing fraudulent orders.
Unfortunately, credit card fraud - especially in regards to the Internet- is a continually growing crime world-wide. The nature of this crime changes rapidly and the warning systems that financial institutions have in place are not always able to flag an incident before it occurs. Many times, stolen credit card information is a result of identity theft, which allows the offending party access to a series of personal information about the card holder. This makes it very difficult to identify if an order is fraudulent or legitimate.
There are certain recommended precautions that merchants can take in order to minimize fraud risk. When orders are received, it often helps for a human eye to peruse the information; if something is suspicious about the order - such as a missing billing address - the merchant may look into the order in more detail. Some things merchants may do to further investigate an order are:
- Have a friendly sales person confirm the order's details with the cardholder by phone. If the phone number is invalid, or if the cardholder expresses they are not aware of the order, the merchant may identify the order as highly suspicious.
- Contact the bank/credit card issuer to confirm that the billing address matches the cardholder's address in their records.
- If the order is placed using a real-time payment gateway such as ClearCommerce, authorization codes provided during the transaction process will alert the merchant about possible "flags" related to the credit card's history (such as if the card was reported stolen, if the billing address does not match). These codes are described in detail in the provided instruction manual.
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