Paynetsecure Blog

To provide an incentive for issuing banks to issue more cards and acquiring banks to add more merchants and thus expand the network, the bank card brands established interchange.  Interchange allocates the costs and revenues of the completed transaction between the issuing bank and acquiring bank.

Interchange fee is essentially a compensation vehicle.  It helps ensure the cooperation and participation of the various parties in the payment processing system by balancing the incentives to increase the base of merchants accepting the card and the base of consumers using the card.  The value of the card to cardholders is higher if more merchants take the card and the value of the card to merchants is higher if more cardholders use the card.

Interchange fees are subject to increasingly intense legal and regulatory scrutiny worldwide which may have a material adverse impact on revenue, prospects for future growth and overall business.

Paynetsecure.net provides innovative ecommerce payment processing solutions.

Load balancing on a payment gateway enables businesses to use multiple payment processors to mitigate risk, maximize processing volumes, and easily manage accounts.  Businesses can dynamically configure each account according to a myriad of parameters to obtain the best payment processing results.

One of the primary benefits of running multiple merchant accounts through a single payment gateway is the ability to simply accounting, customer service, and management functions.

Consider a company that has 3 different merchant accounts.  Without a gateway that could accommodate more than one account, the company would need 3 different payment gateways.

Each gateway requires its own login and password.  Each is associated only with the transactions that are run through a single merchant account.  There is no global overview of all accounts.  Details on each must be compiled separately.  Managing and reconciliation of accounts is difficult.

But, if the company puts all 3 merchant accounts on a single payment gateway and load balances, the picture changes.  Merchant accounts can be viewed globally or individually.  Reporting is consolidated.  Account reconciliation is easy.  Redundancy of function is eliminated and productivity is increased.

Cybercrime continues to march forward.  More than ever, merchants must be diligent in tracking where orders are originating from.

Amazingly, some merchants are not taking even the most basic precautions in protecting against fraudulent transactions.  Merchants who do not control fraud are at risk of losing merchant accounts if fraud and subsequent chargebacks are not adequately controlled.

Geolocation to track where orders are originating from is a basic part of fraud protection.  Merchants should pay careful attention to the geographic location of buyers.

Here are 7 tips to help reduce fraud:

1. Use Address Verification System (AVS) whenever possible
2. Require the buyer input the the 3 or 4 digit code on the back of the credit card
3. Check the Bank Identification Number (BIN)
4. Use Negative/Positive database to screen out buyers with histories of bad transactions
5. Check for consistency between card holder’s claimed location and computer’s IP address
6. Block transactions from IP in countries which are notorious for fraudulent transactions
7. IP and ISP to confirm the ISP of the IP address

For more information visit paynetsecure.net

Fraud is exploding on the internet.  Every day fraudsters are exploiting unwary merchants and stealing millions.  And, it’s not just thieves.  “Friendly fraud” comes from real buyers who simply know how to work the credit card system in their favor.  They deny receiving merchandise or say it was never ordered in the first place.

It’s crucial that any ecommerce merchant have a rule-set based fraud management utility on the payment processing gateway which allows merchants to configure extensive filters to help them in detecting fraud and screening suspicious transactions. Extensive reporting systems give merchants a quick and easy way to review transactions, block suspicious activity, and zero in on malicious users.

A good fraud protection system is easily controlled by the merchant who has complete control over the system.  Through a control panel, merchants can:

1. Maintain good and bad customer lists
2. Create and edit processing controls
3. Restrict or allow access by banning IP addresses, counties, zip codes or any other geographic variable
4. Set controls to filter for email address, transaction count, dollar amounts, velocity checks and a variety of other parameters.

Properly set fraud filters eliminate the majority of fraudulent transactions in real time. The selected filters can be customized for each merchant, which are continuously updated to keep the merchant one step ahead of the fraudsters.

Well, it was inevitable.  In addition to popular bank phishing scams, cybercriminals are now targeting naïve consumers by claiming to be government officials.  Scammers are sending emails that appear to be from the FTC, IRS, or DOJ.

The FTC reports that corporate and banking executives, as well as other consumers have been targeted.  Fake email purporting to be from the government agency, is sent with embedded spyware which then transmits personal information to the thieves.

Most of the IRS phishing emails sent to individuals inform recipients they are either under investigation or have an unclaimed tax refund.  The IRS has gotten over 23,000 complaints about phishing scams in the last 18 months.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg because the vast majority of scams are never reported.  According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the scams have been “unprecedented both in terms of sophistication and the volume of reports we have received,”

The GAO, Congress’s investigative arm, estimates that $1 billion dollars a year is drained out of the US economy by phishers.  Amazingly, despite all the attempts to educate consumers about the dangers of phishing, close to 10% of online households still submit personal information in response to phishing emails.

The phishers are no longer just casual hackers looking for an easy buck.  There is a vast underground criminal network running the scams.  Multilayered organizations make tracking and capturing the criminals difficult.

For example, some parts of the organizations specialize in sending the phishing emails.  Other parts sell the stolen identities.  Finally, top level criminal bosses steal and launder the money obtained from innocent victims’ accounts.

Merchants should guard against phishing attacks by using a secure payment processing gateway.  In addition, remember that internal security is vitally important.  Limit access to your payment processing system.  Watch your audit trails.  Change passwords on a regular basis.  And keep a close track of every employee and vendor that has access to your system.