[YAK] Credit card fraud

Jewelry Discussion
1

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{ Y. A. K. }
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Hi All,

I am having a problem right now with a few credit card orders placed
on my web site from Indonesia and could sure use your opinions on
what I should do. I don’t have a merchant account myself - I use a
credit card accepting service from a craft mall. It seems that these
charges had a stolen number that did not match the billing name or
address given with the order. The service just needs to send in a
credit card number with no to make a charge. They were
rather large orders and the first one went out and is gone, the
second I was able to stop shipment on, and the rest never went out.
The craft mall would now like me to pay them back the money they paid
me for these orders. While I have no problem sending back the money
for the ones that did not go out (minus the shipping on the one I
stopped shipment on), I do not think it is fair that I should be out
the money for the one that got away.

I am wondering: should I be held accountable for a charge that I was
told was accepted when simply checking the name on the card would
have been enough to know it was phony? Do merchant accounts offer
some kind of fraud protection or insurance to the merchant? Is there
any course of action that could be taken against the frauds in
Indonesia? While this question does not directly with jewelry I
would appreciate some advice from those who may have dealt with this
kind of thing. Thanks.

Jill

2

You have my empathy… I do not know about malls – but I would go
back and read your agreement carefully… I use a secure service and
choose fraud protection. I am also able to decide levels of checking–
like does shipping address match order address-- billing address
etc… Good luck and get yourself a host that
will protect you and your customers

3

Jill The best policy in accepting credit cards on line or phone from
outside the US and inside if you want to go to all the work (if high
enough value) is to get an address verification from the bank the
card is issued from. Also many Internet services that accept payment
for you such as Paypal.com or IEscrow.com are a safe way to accept
payments. Amazon, Ebay and others have help sections on accepting
payments that you might want to read and apply. They will give lists
of countries that are known for fraud and not to accept payments
from. I think Indonesia is one of them. We got ripped once for 100.00+
on a legal book to Greece. We would have caught it if we knew what to
look for. The shipping address was not the same as the card holders
address. And they had us use the fastest most expensive shipping
option. That cost us $32.00. more. I would alert the MALL service you
use and see if they follow these guide lines, if not drop them, what
good are they.

Jim
Book Seller and Goldsmith