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Research: Recognizing Credit Card Frauds - Credit-Land.com

Credit card fraud has become one of the biggest reasons why a lot of Americans are too burdened with debts; debts that they never really incurred. Credit card criminals use lost, fake or stolen credit cards.

Both business and consumers fall as victims of credit card fraud. If you are a businessman, what can you do to prevent frauds from taking place in your business?

Here are some things you should check on:

With transactions done personally:

  • Be very meticulous with identifications presented. Check for some alterations on the card and ID`s for most often than not professional credit card thieves also come up with counterfeit ID`s.
  • Check closely on the signature. A smeared signature could be an indication of a stolen credit card.
  • After checking on the legibility of the signature, compare the signature on the cards, the identifications and the signature placed on the slip. A slight difference should be considered a red flag.
  • Check on the hologram on the card. A good credit card; something which is free from tampering will show the three-dimensional graphic that seem to be moving when you tilt the card.
  • Check whether the credit card on your hand belongs to the list of stolen cards.

When transaction is made online or through the phone:

  • never push through the transaction unless all the information you needed are provided
  • When a customer provides a different mailing or shipping address different from the address on the credit card, you have two options: call your customer for order and address confirmation or follow the shipping policy of the company to ship the items on the address found in the credit card.
  • Some purchases maybe done through free emails or email forwarding address programs. When this happens, don`t process the order yet. Make it a rule of the thumb to ask the customer to provide you an email with a valid domain or an ISP, this way there would be a way for you to track the transaction back.

Here are some other indications that an order is made under fraud:

  • when orders are made overseas and there in no seen purchase pattern
  • when the order is requested for express or overnight shipping
  • when a large order is made (especially when the original owner does not usually make large purchases)
  • when a different shipping address is provided

Just take note of the following indicators and you`ll spare your business of credit card frauds.