I recently had an article published in the payments news periodical, The Green Sheet, entitled ‘Telltale Signs of Transaction Laundering.’ The idea for the story came to me when one of our merchant account managers was vetting the website of an applicant, didn’t like what she saw and subsequently refused the merchant’s request. Because I…
Category: Fraud Prevention
3 Connections Between Payments and the 2016 Rio Olympics
The Opening Ceremony for the 2016 Rio Olympics is two days away and an expected half-a-million consumers worldwide will descend upon ‘The Marvelous City,’ many of which will spend a small fortune on memorabilia, meals, event tickets, transport and apparel. And let us remember that Brazil is not only hosting the Olympic Games, but also…
Small Business Hacking Getting More Common
This blogpost was originally posted on Instabill’s satellite website, Instabill.info, on June 12, 2015 with the help of Ed Black, a former PCI Director at Comodo, now a Territory Manager at Heartland Payment Systems. Ed Black says the worst thing a small business owner can believe is that his/her company is safe from hackers, simply…
5 Things to Look For in Manual Reviews
More and more e-commerce merchants are sharpening their customer service skills. About 83 percent of them — up 12 percent from a year ago — are conducting manual reviews on sales made through their websites. Customer support has always been an important part of any e-commerce business. With rising instances of friendly fraud and CNP…
The Pending Consequences of CNP Fraud
It is well known that CNP fraud (card not present fraud) is escalating and will continue to do so. It is going to change the way consumers in the U.S. shop online. The seminar Beyond Fraud: The Unintended Consequences of CNP Fraud at the 2016 CNP Expo, addressed several ways in which shopping on the…
An Open Letter to the Class of 2016 from the Payments Industry
Dear Class of 2016 – CONGRADUATIONS! You’re about to enter the workforce. Did you see all those credit card companies – Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover – exhibiting at random places on your campus the last few weeks of classes and exams? They’re there to sign you up for a credit card with incentives…
Effective Strategies That Will Reduce E-Commerce Fraud
There is a pivotal scene in the film Taxi Driver, when Travis Bickle (expertly played by Robert DeNiro), is well into the depths of madness and utters the famous profane-laced rant, “Listen you … Here is a man who would not take it anymore…A man who stood up against the scum…Here is a man who…
Why You Need P2P Encryption and Tokenization – Today
In the U.S. e-commerce industry, convenience seems to be the antithesis of security. Merchants’ stagnant adoption to 3D secure, at least from what Instabill merchant account managers have seen, is proof of such. In the age of the data breach, however, that school of thought can result in the loss of a business. 3D secure…
Merchants Fighting Friendly Fraud With Compelling Evidence
Friendly fraud is becoming more rampant each year, but e-commerce merchants are fighting back. To most merchants, friendly fraud and chargebacks used to be considered as a measly ‘cost of doing business’ that merchants begrudgingly absorbed. For many reasons, this school of thought is no longer acceptable and even dangerous for two reasons: Visa’s new…
3 Reasons EMV Credit Cards are Not the Silver Bullet
Perhaps we’re dating ourselves by using the ‘silver bullet’ description in referencing the new EMV credit cards. For those not much into 1960s horror films, the ‘silver bullet’ theory describes the only way to kill a werewolf. In terms of the credit card payments industry, fraud is the werewolf, but the new EMV credit cards…