One thing business owners can’t afford right now is dealing with fraudulent credit card activity through their online stores. For most businesses, battling against credit card fraud is an ongoing task, but a type of fraud called “carding” is proving to be more than just a headache and it’s been on the rise lately since many stores have recently transitioned to online payments since the start of the pandemic.

Victims of this fraud, including some local area businesses, are being caught off-guard by thousands of test transactions coming through their website. Once the transactions go through, the business is often charged on a per transaction basis and result in serious costs in owners time, transaction costs and, in some cases, an attack can even take down an entire ecommerce site bringing business to a standstill. The good news is, it is preventable.

How Can You Protect Your Business?

1. Implement reCAPTCHA Technology

Make sure your website is enabled with a reCAPTCHA that will help ensure that every action is made by a human and not an automated script or robot. Other alternatives exist to help detect bots or automated scripts, but the most common fraud mitigation tool for web stores is reCAPTCHA.

2. Perform an Address Verification Service (AVS) Match

When a transaction is processed through your store, an Address Verification Service will perform a match. A resulting code will inform you whether the address mentioned on the checkout page matches the cardholder’s billing address. An additional security option is to restrict shipping to not ship to addresses other than the matched billing address.

3. Limit the Number of Transaction Attempts

If possible, it’s a good idea to limit the number of payment attempts to two or three. After two to three declines the sale should cancel out forcing the customer to start the checkout process over. Limiting this transaction velocity adds another level of security to your store.

4. Set a Minimum Transaction Amount

Most carders initiate transactions between $0.01 and $10 to verify the authenticity of a card. Most online stores can be setup to prevent transactions below a certain amount. Be sure to set reasonable limits as a detterent.

Secure Hosted Payment Page

Ultimately, it’s the business owners responsibility to maintain an ongoing assessment of your payment environment to ensure the security of your store or online payment portal. One popular solution for businesses looking to adapt to the current COVID-19 situation is a hosted payment page where we setup a landing page for your clients to make safe and secure payments. Businesses get paid faster, minimize receivables and reduce payment processing equipment costs.

If you are interested in learning more about our Hosted Payment Solutions, please visit our Online Payments page.

ABOUT US

Motus Financial, located in Sun Prairie, provides Point-of-Sale (POS) technology solutions and credit card processing services. Locally-owned and operated Motus Financial offers a complete suite of online payment options, POS technologies, and mobile payment solutions to assist merchants in processing payment from credit cards, debit cards, and checks.  Motus Financial can also provide a customized gift card program for your business.

For more information, please contact us at 608-819-8666 or check out our website at www.motuscc.com and we look forward to assisting you.