Credit card fraud has received much attention in the recent past. According to recent stats, more than $16 billion losses have been accounted for the banks during 2015 as a result of credit and debit card fraud activities. In fact, it has the potential to create a tremendous financial impact on any business. Therefore, to all merchants and retailers, be aware of this and how to prevent credit card fraud.

6 tips / methods how to prevent credit card fraud

• Educate yourself on the common behaviors of fraudsters – If you want to prevent credit card fraud, it is imperative that you to have a clear understanding on behavior that is exhibited by fraudsters out there in the world. This will give you the opportunity to stay away from the risk associated with bogus transactions during credit card processing. Some industries and countries are more prone than others, therefore do your research – every industry could potentially have different traits.

• Request cardholder information – You might find this one conflicting. If you gather more information, you might reduce conversion rates on your web site. Nonetheless, this is something that you personally must analyse and judge for yourself. It is well known that the more information gathered during the transaction, the less the possibility of credit card fraud. Furthermore, fraudsters tend to prefer easy targets – such as sites requesting basic card information only. Gather date of birth, full address (perhaps your payment service provider can utilise Aaddress Verification System to validate the transaction.

• 3D Secure – We have written another post regarding this. 3D Secure is a brilliant way to prevent credit card fraud. Read this 3D Secure article to understand what it is and how it can prevent credit card fraud.

• Prevent fraud within your retail business– Markings on cards and suspicious behaviour. You can offer proper training to all cashiers to look out for  suspicious behaviour. For example, people who purchase large amount of goods or perhaps customers who repeatedly purchase a large amount of goods within a very short time-frame. If the card is not pin-driven but rather the ‘old style’ signature based cards, request a copy of their ID.

• Monitor addresses – Orders (either online or via phone) with differing billing and shipping addresses can be suspicious. It might be a casual coincidence, but accompanied with other fraud-look a like circumstances can be a hint of a fraudulent transaction.

• Use third-party services – There are tons of fraud prevention services out there. Such as Iovation or Maxmind. These are systems you can connect to your shop. These systems filter transactions and share real-time alerts with you. Prevent credit card fraud by utilising such services!

Hope you have a better understanding on preventing credit card fraud. Don’t beat yourself up if you are unable to implement all of the above, however adopting a few will surely help!