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Payment Gateway Service : 7 Merchant-Prone Errors That Can Be Prevented

by Michelle Newman   Ann Marie Chiu owned a chain of apparel stores. To increase her customer base, she set up her shop so that it can accept credit card payment. She also subscribed to a secure payment gateway service to protect her establishments from fraudulent card transactions. To her surprise, she discovered a number of credit card disputes and chargebacks in her merchant account. She called up her payment gateway company and complained about it. She claimed that payment gateway service failed her. An investigation ensued and the findings indicated the following results: a.)the involved credit cards are all legitimate. These are not stolen or tampered in anyway. Moreover, these cards contain sufficient funds to cover the transactions. b.) the card owners claim that they did not make the questionable transactions. As proof, they pointed out that the billing address and delivery address are glaringly different. c.)and most intriguing of all, all the cards involved showed a series of purchase transactions at the same two-day span and the items ordered are completely irrelevant to the lifestyles of these owners. These startling inconsistencies established an irrefutable conclusion: someone from the store with access to computers containing credit card records made or somehow facilitated the fraudulent transactions. In other words, it's an inside job. Soon, they caught red-handed a trusted employee while he was secretly downloading credit card information from the store PC into his miniature flashdrive. He admitted the crime and said that he was underpaid for his job. As expected, he was promptly terminated and charged in court.   This true-to-life example illustrates just one the many things a business owner should watch out for. These incidents lay beyond the jurisdiction of payment gateway service Other types of merchant-prone frauds are : <ol><li>Employees like waiters or waitress who have high-tech devices like Personal Digital Assistant ( PDA) with a card reader. These employees could be secretly swiping your customers' cards in their PDA and then using the card information to make fake credit cards. </li><li>Customers who makes several extravagant purchases without haggling for the price. Be wary with these type of customers. Ask them probing questions. If you are not satisfied with their answers, turn down their purchases. </li><li>Be alert when a customer makes large purchases that just doesn't fit. For example, a 19 year old guy buying large quantities of female undergarments in various sizes. A middle-aged woman buying large quantities of MP3s, hardware materials, flimsy swimsuits that are way above or below her body measurement. </li><li>A group of rowdy customers at the store counter who gang up on the helpless clerk demanding that their transactions be prioritized because they are in a hurry. Chances are, these customers are working in tandem in order to distract the clerk and slip fraudulent credit cards. Always train the store clerk at the check out counter to be vigilant and go through the entire credit card purchase payment process. </li><li>A customer who repeatedly goes back to your store in just a short span of time--- say, in 30 minutes, to make large purchases. These are indications of a fraud. Exercise vigilance. </li><li>Customers who purchase large items and refuse your offer of free delivery. Usually, these customers look tense, nervous, and insistent that they carry the heavy goods themselves. Under these circumstances, be on guard. Insist that store policy requires such purchased items be delivered, and not hand-carried. </li><li>Employees who have access to your computers or who directly work with credit card information in your store. These store workers are potential sources of credit card fraud. Carefully screen your employees. </li></ol> ( Michelle Newman is the CEO of a leading Fortune 500 company based in San Francisco. She lectures on various business topics like marketing, competitive business strategies, and management-related issues. She does some business writings on her spare time.) <a href="http://www.onlywire.com/submit?u=http://www.securepaymentgateways.com/payment_gateway_service_7_merchant-prone_errors_that_can_be_prevented.html;t=payment%20gateway;tags=payment%20gateway" target="_blank" title="Add this Article to Onlywire"><img src="http://www.onlywire.com/i/onlywire.ico" alt="" />Add to Onlywire!</a>

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