Merchants Beware - You Are At risk From Fraudster Using Stolen Credit cards

By Don Reid

Did you know there is a whole sub class of criminal known as "carders"? These low lifes hang out in forums and buy and sell credit card numbers by the thousand. You can easily find them by googling "carders forum".

Carders and fraudsters use stolen credit card information primarily to buy goods and services online from unsuspecting merchants. In 2007 the total they stole from websites was $3.6 BILLION. In 2008 the total will be more than 4 billion.

Most people do not realise the following, but it's dead set true. In a online credit card transaction there are 4 parties. There are the banks, the card company, the card holder and the merchant. The merchant is the ONLY one out of those parties that has any risk in a fraudulent transaction. Not only will the merchant lose the profit and costs for the sale, the card company will also fine the merchant $20. That just adds insult to injury.

The biggest problem online merchants have is they simply do not have a signature from the cardholder and they are unlikely to get it. Without a signature from the cardholder, the merchant is the only party at risk. This is because there is no proof the cardholder authorized the transaction.

One other problem for online merchants is real cardholders who buy goods and services and then later claim they never authorized the transaction. This is a rapidly increasing problem and one I have found some solutions which merchants can use.

What can a merchant do to avoid this problem? Thats a good question and luckily after 13 years of confronting this problem I have produced a step by step solution. You need never be ripped off again. My new book "Merchants Beware and it's companion video will lead you through the easy steps to detecting fraud before its a problem.

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