Credit Card Fraud WAY UP over the past week HELP

[Autographs]

I have been conducting business on-line for 19 YEARS and We have not had as much attempts at Fraud in those 19 years as we have in the past week.

I have no Idea what to do.

If We ship out the orders and they are fraud, we lose our product and the money from that order will be refunded to the REAL Card holder (so far in the past week it's been over $10,000 in orders) If they are REAL orders, and we don't ship the products to them, well, we have just lost a Good Customer.

It's a lose-lose for us.

All of these transactions are getting approved from the card processing company with street, zip, and CVV Codes. Which tells Me as a business That this a a good sale and this will be My Money, only to find out later it's Fraud and It's NOT My money.

What protection is there for Merchants? NONE!

Has anyone else had this problem and come up with a solution? I REALLY need to get this figured out ASAP before it crumbles what I have built up over the last 19 years.

I would LOVE to hear any suggestions anyone may have.

Oh and PS, I Use Authorize.net for my website Credit card processing.

[C0ldf1re]

... PS, I Use Authorize.net for my website Credit card processing.

The systems that I am familiar with check that the despatch address is the same as the cardholder's address. This rather stops a crook from benefiting from using credit card details fraudulently. Ask your payment processor whether they do this cross-check.

[Autographs]

The systems that I am familiar with check that the despatch address is the same as the cardholder's address. This rather stops a crook from benefiting from using credit card details fraudulently. Ask your payment processor whether they do this cross-check.

Each and EVERY Order the last week got an approval with a perfect match to the Card holders Billing address. Now, Maybe the person trying to commit the fraud will not benefit from the fraud, but I will for sure lose the products I send to the card holders address. Some have tried to have the items shipped to a different address (Which we had no problem with in the past, but We will now only ship to the Billing address, and people are STILL placing fraud orders and for THOUSANDS of $$'s each, I don't know if they are intercepting the Mail before the card holder gets it or not, but NO ONE seems to care about this Fraud but ME because They all lose nothing.

[C0ldf1re]

... Maybe the person trying to commit the fraud will not benefit from the fraud, but I will for sure lose...

One explanation is if there is somebody who really wants to harm your business. Somebody vindictive enough to pay for a list of stolen credit card details, and who has the time to place all these orders, and who is willing to risk jail by committing these crimes.

Your system probably records the IP addresses from which orders were placed. Is there a pattern?

Has your credit card processor ever come across anything similar?

And (obvious one) what do the cops say?

[Autographs]

One explanation is if there is somebody who really wants to harm your business. Somebody vindictive enough to pay for a list of stolen credit card details, and who has the time to place all these orders, and who is willing to risk jail by committing these crimes.

I talked to a BIG Banker Friend of mine This weekend, and he told me that unless it's $20,000 Or More in Fraud, the law will not really go after them, Sad but that's what I was told.

Your system probably records the IP addresses from which orders were placed. Is there a pattern?

Yes it does, and there is No pattern, I have looked up the IP's and Each is from the areas where the orders are to be shipped (So that doesn't even look funny)

Has your credit card processor ever come across anything similar?

AUTHORIZE.net is a Bunch of IDIOTS, they want to take all the money and NON of the Responsibility for passing the approvals along to me.
This was their answer and I QUOTE "The approval is being provided from the issuing bank for the credit card. All this confirms is that the funds are available and the card is active. This approval code conveys or implies nothing further!"

And (obvious one) what do the cops say?

They act like I'm doing something cray, like saying HEY, Do you mind doing your JOB? They can't be Bothered.

[C0ldf1re]

... I have looked up the IP's and Each is from the areas where the orders are to be shipped (So that doesn't even look funny)...

These facts do not fit any normal pattern of crime that I have ever come across. It is almost as if the only explanation left will be a conspiracy against you.

The only thing I can suggest as an immediate remedy is to capture each customer's telephone number, and phone them to confirm the order. Some online vendors of children's toys and games do this as a matter of course to ensure that children are not misusing their parents' credit cards.

Perhaps the excuse to phone could be presented as, "We are pleased to say that your order is being shipped today, instead of the 2-4 days promised on our website. We thought we would let you know so that you know to expect the post." If they then respond, "Huh?", you know it is a fake order.

This will be quite a drain on your time, but the alternatives are worse.

It is surprising that the cops have shown no interest. Solving an internet crime should seem to hold a lot of kudos for the successful detective. I would suggest putting some pressure on the police, because they have the resources and authority to investigate crimes in a way you could never manage yourself. In my jurisdiction, a letter from your lawyer to the local chief of police would make things happen.

Please keep us updated with the latest developments.

[SteveGerencser]

We've had to deal with this since credit cards were invented. The banks take zero responsibility for transactions that they approve and place 100% of the blame on merchants. The only way to even come close to protecting yourself is to only ship to the billing address. You can require a signature, and I believe you can even require that they do a photo ID check.

It sucks, but it is the cost of doing business sometimes.

[jeff12345]

It is very strange that you got fraud on internet.There are lots of way to do such type of things on internet.I have seen many times on internet.But how did you people got such type of thing.Did you file cyber crime case or something like this.

[trade-show-oracle]

It seems very strange that this would be happening multiple times if you are shipping to the credit card billing address (as you say). How are the crooks able to "intercept" the package before the card holder gets it?
As Steve said, I would only ship to the billing address, and would require the card holder sign for the delivery. I've ordered from a computer company that had this policy, and said if there was any exception, it would delay the order while they took further confirmation steps.
But again, if this happens on different orders sent to different places, how would the "thieves" be pulling it off?

[C0ldf1re]

We do not have all the facts we need. Are any bogus orders actually being received by the card holders? How are the orders despatched, and can we be sure that they are not being intercepted locally? Are we sure that the IP addresses of the bogus orders are too far away for anybody to travel there and log-in at a public wifi? Are the orders processed on a website or a local PC, and can we be sure that it has not been hacked?