Best Practices - Never Ask For Credit Card Numbers To Be Emailed

As a business that accepts credit cards, never ask for a credit card number to be emailed.  If you provide a form for a customer to complete, you should state very clearly that full credit card numbers and expiration dates should never be emailed on the form.  Also this applies to this same info left on voice mail.  This is for the security of credit card data of your customer and for your business to adhere to PCI Compliance per the card brands.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

Stand Alone Credit Card Terminals & It’s Communication

Many years ago before the internet, the old “ma bell” phones and the phone lines operated on sending/reading pulses.  With the advent of the internet a new system has come to the market called voice over internet or VOIP.  Today most if not all phone system uses VOIP or Digital Phone lines. If not in your office / business, but at the switching stations.

Today’s credit card terminal, when using a phone line and the built in modem, is based on the old “ma bell protocol. Voice over IP or Digital Phone lines simulate this pulse, which isn’t always sufficient for what the terminal is looking for. For this reason if a merchant has VOIP we recommend  processing over IP instead.  It must be a wired internet connection.  Wi-Fi will not work for the vast majority of stand-alone credit card terminals.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

E-commerce Websites & Card Testing By Fraudsters - Up By 200%

If your business has a website that takes credit cards, beware of a fraud that is increasing. Non-profit businesses are more at risk because the obstacles to prevent the fraud are normally not used.

The fraudsters’ uses e-commerce websites to test stolen credit card numbers to see which ones are still good. This type of fraud is up 200% first four months of 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to a report from Radial’s E-commerce Fraud Technology Lab.

They can high jack the use of the site for running test transactions. This is done by a very sophisticated manner using bots and scripts repetitive tasks at lighting speed. Attempting hundreds of card payments online in minutes. If this happens at your site, it will cost in transactions fees just for the test. Any good payments funded can later results in charge backs. If you have too many charge backs that exceed a threshold, per the card brands may results in the shutdown of your merchant account.

To protect your business from being a victim of this type of fraud, review your security setting to make it harder for the “bots” to run the scripts. Do this by turning on or add an extra requirement for verification. This feature will require the person prior to entering credit card info, to enter a security code from a randomly generated image. Consider turning on an email notification so every time a credit card is used for a purchase on your site, you will receive an email. This could alert you to this fraud because, if attacked, you will receive numerous emails very quickly. Depending on the software / services you may be using, there can be additional security features available.  In some gateways you can also limit how many transaction will be allowed to go thru in a day. It’s called daily velocity. If you use authorize.net you might want to consider their Advanced Fraud Detection Suite by using Authorize.net 13 fraud-fighting filters and tools.

Last if you find you are attacked, turn off your gateway so no new transactions can be tried at once until you have made your site secure to stop the testing. If any fraudulent transaction were good, void or refund depending on the status.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294