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 Credit
card information is extremely sensitive, and plenty of villains
are waiting to exploit any breach in your security. Additionally,
online merchants are more susceptible to credit card fraud
than face-to-face retailers. Make sure your merchant account
provider has addressed these issues.
You must reassure your Web customers that their personal information
is safe by processing their orders through a secure server
, which encrypts the data exchanged in processing their order.
Most of the gateways your merchant account is likely to use
encrypt data to prevent message tampering. The current industry
standard for secure servers is SSL (secure socket layer) ,
but Visa, MasterCard, and several major banks are developing
an alternative called SET (secure electronic transaction)
. If you are setting up for instant verification, ask potential
merchant account providers about their security systems. If
you process your orders manually, you'll need to provide SSL
on your own server (ask your Web site host about security
if you do not operate your own server).
Fraud prevention can be accomplished in several ways; check
with your MAP to see what method they employ. Address verification
service (AVS) is one common prevention means. AVS verifies
key components of a customer's shipping addresses against
addresses that the credit card issuer has on record for that
consumer. Research shows that about 65% of the time, criminals
using card account numbers fraudulently do not know the account's
related billing address. When an address fails to match either
partially or totally, an AVS enabled merchant will be notified
immediately through the authorization code received after
the card is entered and can take further steps to verify the
legitimacy of the purchase. AVS can verify addresses for Visa,
MasterCard, proprietary card, and private label transactions.
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