Fraud Protection Technology That Every Small Business Should Know About

Fraud protection systems are a must have forAlong with training that gives you the skills you
anyone with a small business merchant account.need to recognize warning signs, you'll be given
You'll find there are a number of differentaccess to a special online tool that allows you to
technologies available. Each one works in aview transaction information as well as a system
different way and has its own pros and cons.that uses databases and processing rules. The
When dealing with small business credit cardpurpose is to determine the intent and the validity
processing however, it isn't necessarily choosingof the transaction.
one method over the other. Instead, becomeAuthentication And Verification
educated about all of them and use them to yourRegardless of whether you're face-to-face with a
advantage.client or completing the transaction online, you
Built-In Card Fraud Protectionneed to be certain of the purchaser's identity and
The card itself has a number of security featuresthat he or she owns the card. Online, this is done
built right into it. One of the first things you'll noticethrough instant verification. In person, you'll have
are ghost images on the card, a miniatureto compare the card with the customer's
holographic image, and repetitive writing acrossgovernment issued ID. Address verification works
the back on the signature panel. The purpose ofthe same way. Online, you should never ship
these details is to make it easy for you toproducts to a different address than the one
recognize fake cards or ones that have beenregistered with the credit card unless there is a
tampered with in some way, and ultimatelyverifiable and logical reason for it.
prevent fraud and chargebacks on your merchantVerified Cards And SSL
account.Visa and MasterCard have both incorporated the
You will notice three or four digits by theadded safety of debit cards to their credit cards,
signature panel on the back of the card. Thesewhich is good news for your small business
are part of a verification system called CVC2 bymerchant account. To put the transaction through,
MasterCard and CW2 by Visa. To use them, you'llyour customers will have to enter a special code
be asked to supply these numbers to the smallthat is known only to them in order to verify that
business credit card processing provider, who willthey are indeed the card owner. For online small
then compare the numbers you gave to thebusiness credit card processing services, SSL, or
numbers on the customer's file.Secure Socket Layer, adds an extra layer of
Risk Management Transaction Securitysecurity to the connection, making it twice as
A large portion of preventing fraud andhard for hackers and others to gain access to the
chargebacks on your small business merchantinformation.
account lies with you and your ability to identifySmall business credit card processing is safe online
risky transactions. In fact, if you accept Visa orand offline, but there's always a chance that
MasterCard for small business credit cardsomething could happen. The solution is to focus
processing, you are held by their PCI DSS, oron prevention. Follow accepted procedures for
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards,handling the transaction and make use of the
which state you must follow procedure whenfraud security systems in place, and you'll find
storing and caring for customer data. It alsothat fraudulent use and chargebacks will rarely
includes risk assessment.occur on you small business merchant account.