Fraudulent Credit Card Orders

Most payment processing companies wil automatically check orders for obvious signs of fraud and / or allow you to set the conditions yourself through their admin area. Checks are often made on AVS, CVV but may include transaction amount, known bad IP addresses or ranges as well as rapid multiple orders amongst others.

The important consideration is not to rely 100% on your payment proceesor to pick up on fraudulent orders and that is why we recommend manually reviewing each and every order. The steps below are a guide to checking for fraudulent orders.

  • Closely check all orders
  • Check the IP address of the order. Use a site such as Hexillion to match the IP address of the computer with the address of the customer.
  • Check the address and telephone number of the customer. Use a service such as White Pages or Infobel, you can also often search on a person's name on Google to find out details about the buyer.
  • Always double check orders where the customer uses a free email account such as Hotmail, Yahoo, gmail etc.
  • Always double check orders where the shipping address is a PO Box.
  • Always triple check orders where the shipping address is different to the billing address.
  • If in doubt telephone / email the buyer to check their credentials.
  • If you are still in doubt, cancel the order and don't ship. Chargebacks will cost you more and may compromise your merchant account.
  • Avoid accepting personal checks - they can easily be stopped.

Glossary of Credit Card Fraud terms


AVS (Address Verification Service)

Check on the card holder's billing address. This will match the address given on checkout with the records held by the bank for the address of the card holder

CVV (Cardholder Verification Value)

A check on the three digit number on the back of a credit card.

IP address

The address of the the computer from where the order originates, this will be in the form of numbers like 123.123.123.123

Chargeback

When a customer contacts the credit card company disputing the purchase. This may be due to fraud or displeasure with the product received. Chargebacks will incur an extra fee, depending on your payment processing company, and may result in the closure of your account.