We all love to get new orders on a daily basis. It helps in so many ways. As those orders come across you must be careful of credit card fraud. Most of the larger web hosting companies have seen this. You get an order using a credit card based in the US and the address matches but 60 to 90 days later you find out it is fraud and you are hit with charge backs and $15 fees. It is not a good situation to get into. Common sense can help prevent credit card fraud. A few things to keep in mind on your back end:

1. Manually approve your orders.
2. Don't automatically register domain names.

Lets say as an example John Doe is the credit card user and supposedly the new account owner. Here is a list of things to look for to prevent credit card fraud.

1. Match the account owners name with the email address. Example: If John Doe is the owner and the email address is jdoe@whatever.com, then more than likely the user is legitimate. Be careful with Hot Mail accounts. They are easy to obtain without registering "Real" information. We have seen a lot of these so called Hot Mail orders.

2. Match the account owners name with the name on the credit card. A lot of times you'll find that the user is purchasing a plan for a friend or client. It is always good to check though.

3. Look at the domain name of the email address that the user has on the order form. Does it make sense. Look at the web site and see if it is legitimate.

4. Look at the telephone number and make sure that the area code matches up to the location of the user.

5. Make sure the telephone number has an area code and 7 digits. Many times a user will enter in a number with 6 digits or 8 digits. Make sure the phone number makes sense.

6. Last but not least, call your clients. Make it a welcome call and not just a to do item. Clients really appreciate it and in a two minute phone call you can build a personal relationship with each client. They will remain with you for a long time to come.

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Author:Christopher Berry

The Host Group

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Published on: 2004-01-25 (5859 reads)