Merchant Credit Card Processing Fraud Prevention Tips

It would be unwise to neglect abuse measures for merchant credit card processing systems because of the increasing incidence of identity theft and the growing public wariness about security of personal financial information. Although apparently unnecessary and impractical procedures must be followed strictly in order to combat such social engineering methods and internal fraud from circumventing the security of sensitive data. 

Two widely available tools for credit card verification help to provide a robust defense against fraud: the use of an address verification service (ACP) and short-code verification (CCV). ACP should be used especially in cases where a customer's billing address differs from delivery address. Although it may be less convenient, more secure solution is to have the billing and shipping information filled in for every transaction that goes through the ACP. This is also the case with CCV, indicating that the card is in physical possession of the authorized user. Take a CCV in a customer file to circumvent this safeguard. 

Rather than having a single log-in to your merchant credit card processing system, you should have a multiple user account with a separate user name and ID for each employee who uses the system, with carefully selected set of permissions for each user. This is important for correlating actions through your dealer interface to individual users, and limiting all but essential access to sensitive data. You should also change the login passwords on a regular basis. 

You should also regularly monitor new and pending transactions, and verify or invalidate anyone who seems suspicious, before your daily cut-off time. Unusual quantities of changes in address, and unusually frequent operations are examples of red flags that warrant a closer look at these transactions. Your internet merchant account can have features that allow you to filter for these indicators automatically. 

These are by no means the only possible means to help you avoid credit card fraud. Ask the provider to make your merchant credit card processing to advise you on additional safeguards that may be relevant to your business.