Avoiding credit card fraud!

[Jamie]

There are many evil :twisted: people out there who like to use stolen credit cards to try and purchase online. We just had an order today that someone placed with a stolen credit card. They gave an address in New York, but they where sitting somewhere in Saudi Arabia. Here is some info that may help you avoid credit card fraud.

- Always check to make sure that you have received payment before shipping. I do this via emails from our payment processor, 2Checkout.com. The emails sent from the cart are just so you know you have an order, but it's not a done deal until you have the cash! - Check the order thoroughly for anything unusual, especially if the order is for a large amount of $$$$!

- Check the IP address that the order was placed from, and compare it's geographical location to the location of the address provided in the order info. The IP address placing the order is available in the email that gets sent to the merchant. You can then copy it, and paste it into the form at this site, and find out where it is registered:
http://www.geektools.com/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi
If you get an order and the address is in New York, and the IP address they placed the order from is in a place far from there, then a red flag should go up. If you have any suspicions, call the person. If you have a true merchant account, you can call your support, and get the telephone number for the card issuing bank. You can then call the bank, and ask them if the card was reported stolen.

[swhite]

People do sometimes buy things on vacation so the address not matching the ip doesn't mean you are dealing with a thief. It just means you should be cautious.

[Jamie]

Good point!

A few more things to check, especially for high priced items:

1. Check the domain the email address is on. If it is from a free site, such as hotmail or yahoo, keep in mind that the person did not have to verify who they where when signing up for the account, because they are not paying for it. Lots of honest people use them, but almost all thieves use them so you can't track them back to a physicall address.

2. Check the physical address, if possible, and see if it really exists. USPS is good for that, if it is a US order. You can use their ZIP code lookup, and enter the street address in, and see if it is at least listed with them. This is especially important if you are offering products that aren't being physically shipped.

3. Check the phone number, and see if it is legitimate. Their are lots of sites out there that will give you a revers look up, and tell you what name and address belongs to what phone number (don't know any off hand though! maybe superpages.com?)

-Jamie

[web9000]

i use this one

http://www.infospace.com/_1_169174148__info/reverse.htm

[djdubuque]

i use this one

http://www.infospace.com/_1_169174148__info/reverse.htm

No longer a good site.

try

http://www.switchboard.com/

[gunner76]

Try entering the phone # in Google, if it is home or biz # most of the times you will get a name and address.