Tis’ the season of giving, but for many fraudsters, it’s also an opportunity to take advantage of your hectic schedule! Fraud is on the rise during the holiday season. It’s even more important to keep your eyes open for the fraud indicators. To learn more about what to look for, please review the list below.  When more than one is true during a card-not-present transaction, fraud might be involved.

Things to Consider as Potential Red Flags:

• Larger-than-normal orders
• Orders that include several of the same item
• Shipping to an international address (Very High Risk)
• Transactions with similar account numbers and/or same first 6 digits (same BIN)
• Transactions placed on multiple cards or multiple transactions on one card over a very short period of time.
• Sales processed through the Deaf Relay System
• Cardholder’s asking for Wires or funds through Western Union
• Sales that seem “Too Good to be True”
• Large dollar donations or numerous small dollar donations (i.e. $5, $10)

Be Cautious and Take Extra Steps.

Take every precaution at the point of sale. It’s important to take extra steps such as:

• AVS (Address Verification) is a Match
• Verify the CVV (3-digit security code) is a Match
• Always ship to the AVS verified Cardholder Billing Address only
• Look out for "red flags" for fraud signs that can be identified and stopped at the point of sale.
• Never pay for shipping or wire funds
• Only use your own shipping company; not a company requested by cardholder
• Face-to Face (Retail) Covert to EMV ready equipment to prevent fraud at the point of sale
• Check your batches daily! Especially if you are on automatic settlement and have an online store.  This gives you the opportunity to identify if fraud is taking place, void the transaction, and then contact risk/tech support for help.

If you aren't comfortable with the sale or the sale seems suspicious in any way, you have the right to deny the sale or ask for the cardholder to pay using alternate form of payment (i.e. wire, money order, cash).

If you have any questions or concerns regarding a transaction, please contact the Risk Management Department at Riskanalysts@paya.com.