Merchant Account Fraud Prevention

Setting up merchant accounts fraud prevention is certainly necessary, especially if you hope to accept credit cards from your customers. At the same time, merchant accounts can be one of the most risky things that your business is involved in, so it is very important that you make sure all proper precautions are in place. Beyond just having security measures provided by your merchant account supplier, it is important that you and all of your employees are aware of steps you can take to prevent fraud.

Identify theft and credit card fraud are becoming two of the most common crimes around the world and if your merchant account is part of a fraudulent transaction it could result in your entire account being frozen temporarily. It doesn’t take a business genius to realize that this sort of shutdown could have a very detrimental effect on your sales, especially if you operate business online. Keeping this in mind, it is important to take every possible precaution.

To start, make sure that your merchant accounts are protected with the latest in PCI compliance standards. Ensure that everything is up to code and that your chosen provider keeps up with any new developments. If you want to really make sure that your business remains secure, consider looking for a company that goes above and beyond. With Transparent’s unique security system, PCI compliance is only the basis for protection and there are systems in place to ensure merchant accounts fraud prevention.

Don’t Lose Your Client’s Trust

Going beyond the actual merchant accounts though, there are some ways that you can ensure within your own organization that you avoid fraudulent transactions. To start, make sure that everyone who is involved with order processing knows to keep an eye out for any conflicting information. Some of these conflicts can include a different ordering address compared to the billing address, repeat identical orders, an invalid phone number, a temporary e-mail address, and a variety of other suspicious factors.

In each of these cases, you must hold off on accepting the transaction and verify that it is actually valid. One powerful way for merchant account fraud prevention is to verify all orders over a certain dollar amount. To do this, you can call the issuing credit card company any time someone makes a purchase of X dollars or greater. For example, if your average transaction is $500 you can put that any order over $2,000 is flagged and sent for phone verification. With a simple and quick call to the issuing card provider, you can make sure your merchant account remains safe from fraud.

Additionally, there are dozens of different tricks you can employ to ensure that you do not fall victim to merchant account fraud. One consideration is to protect the account itself and make sure that no one can access any of the information. Though there are prevention techniques in place from the merchant account provider, you must exercise your own caution to ensure that no one gets into your back end and accessing information.

If you have questions on how you can better defend your business account from fraudulent transaction, please contact a representative at Transparent today and find out what additional steps you can take.