Well we made the big time a week last Friday with an interview on ITVs Tonight With Trevor McDonald. They ran a feature on Cardholder Not Present Fraud and as we have had some experience with this I went along to Granada's studios in Manchester and was interviewed in a lovely old bonded warehouse about 100 yards from the Coronation Street set, and no I didn't see any of the cast.
Seriously though this is a real threat to the online retailer. We have experienced a few transactions that have gone through and look perfectly legitimate until you dig a little deeper.
To catch them we now ring the telephone number provided to verify the identity of the customer. If we get no answer we then email and if no response is received within a week we do not send the goods and we refund the card back.
It is important to avoid "Chargebacks" from the bank as they charge you for the privilege of taking the money out of your account and if you get a lot of chargebacks they will withdraw your merchant number!
I believe the banks are introducing a new system in the summer that will prevent the merchant from being penalised in any way but I do suspect that the cardholder will bear the brunt once again, when the system is introduced.
Here is a useful review of Fraud and its prevention from Protx.
This website has lots of great information on how to shop and bank safely online.
Anyway thats all for now but look out for some great spring cleaning offers from DIY Essentials early next week.....
