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Fruad Prevention

EFTPOS & Credit Card Fraud, Traps and Scams: Guide to preventing the risk

For Consumers

Credit card fraud is an ever increasing evil we as consumers and merchants have to deal with. The Internet has made it near child's-play for fraudsters to trick us with credit card traps and credit card scams and as with most things, the best line of defence is knowledge.

Become savvy enough, even when shopping online and you won't have much to fear at all.

It’s comforting t to know that there’s less fraudulent credit card activity in Australia in relation to other western countries. In Asia Pacific 0.0070% of fraudulent cheque and card transactions occured during 2005-06.

As consumers we can breathe a sigh of relief because it seems we have it safer than most countries around the world. This doesn’t mean that you should be complacent about credit card security.

To avoid fraud, remember to:

• Shred, burn, or drown any printed material with your credit card details. You don’t want a fraudster to do phone or online shopping with your details do you?
• When shopping online, follow the 7 steps outlined by Stay Smart Online
• Keep an eye on your credit card when using it for purchases. Go up to the counter at cafes / restaurants when you pay.
• Cut up or shred old credit cards. You can also scratch the magnetic strip if that makes you feel good too.
• Shred any pre-approved credit card applications you receive if you’re not going to accept the offer.

For Merchants

For a detailed guide please see the Australian Payments Clearing Association website (www.apca.com.au). DOWNLOAD GUIDE HERE

Credit card fraud costs customers and merchants billions each year, but it can be prevented by implementing a few simple measures when selling online.

1. Shipping address

It is nice for your customers if you can ship to a 'gift address' as some places call it. However, thieves use this feature with stolen creditcard. Even though it might reduce sales, it is best to ship only to the billing address for the credit card.

2. Splitting up payment between cards

One sign that a customer is using a stolen credit card is that they want you to charge part of the order to one card with the remaining balance being charged to another. Part of why this is done is because smaller purchases may be over-looked by the owners of the cards.

3. Order Verification

Some online stores have made it part of their ordering process to call customers before shipping out their orders. This is a good policy because someone using a stolen credit card may not want to talk to the place that they are ordering from. If you have this policy, you don't necessarily have to call every customer. Having the note on your website that you will call to verify an order may be enough to scare off a would be thief.

4. Order Size

If you aren't going to call every customer to verify an order, you may want to consider doing it for the ones of a high-dollar amount. Even if the name and address are correct, a huge order could be a sign that something is amiss. It could have been a quantity mistake or a child ordering without permission.