The Future of Authentication
They say the password is dead, but that might seem ironic as you click “Forgot your password?” for the fifth time today. That said, the password is no longer as safe and reliable a security measure as it once was. There is currently a lot of R&D going into creating better user authentication tokens. These new authentications range from the fascinating to the down-right scary.
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A Strategy for Using Call Centers
When a cardholder sees a transaction on their bill that they don’t recognize, or that they were unsatisfied with, they don’t call the merchant. More often then not, they call their bank Read more …
Self Assessment: Are you a soft target for fraud?
The Great American EMV card transition is finally in high gear, which is great news for compliant storefront retailers; card-present fraud is in decline. However, online merchants are getting hit by a new wave of fraud as crooks turn to card-not-present transactions with their stolen cards. And just like regular thieves looking for open windows to rob homes, cyber-crooks are looking for vulnerabilities in payment gateways to commit fraud. If you are processing CNP transactions, you need to prepare yourself for this new wave of fraud. Let’s take a look at how you can fortify your transactions.
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How convenience begets vulnerabilities
Convenience is the new frontier in fraud. Credit card schemes want consumers using their products as much as possible, and sometimes fraud prevention conflicts with ease of use. We see this clearly with the EMV card rollout here in the United States. Card companies believe that chip & PIN may dissuade consumers from using EMV cards. So here in U.S., it’s chip & signature–PIN is not required so as not to disrupt the fragile user experience. But when you think of how many times a cashier has actually checked your signature, the potential exploit in this system is clear.
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How the Trump Administration will affect merchants
Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, we can safely agree the newly-minted Trump Administration will take a pro-business stance on financial regulation. That stance will undoubtedly affect the payments industry and, by proxy, merchants can expect to see some changes on the horizon. So let’s take a look at what this might mean for merchants, from an apolitical perspective (if such a thing still exists, sad!).
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Compelling Evidence Explained
We say it all the time at ChargebackHelp, “Knowledge is power.” And representment is another case in point. If you know when you should represent against a chargeback, your chances of winning representment increase significantly. Don’t be one of those merchants that waste time and effort representing every chargeback. Read more …
Representment: Fighting words
Representment is a real word, despite what your spellcheck might think. You may not recognize the term, but if you’re a merchant, you’ve definitely been in a position where representment can help you out big time. Representment is the formal process by which merchants can dispute a chargeback, and if successful, recover the revenue at stake.
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The Fraud Ecosystem: From hack to chargeback
In 2014, top retailers Target, Home Depot, and CVS were all hacked, exposing over 100 million credit card records. In 2015, it was Walmart, Anthem, and AshleyMadison. In 2016, FriendFinder announced nearly half a billion accounts were hacked. And Yahoo is probably still getting hacked right now. These hacks have far reaching consequences that affect all of us, especially merchants. Chances are, if you’re a merchant who has been hit by fraud recently, those transactions can be traced back to data hacks like these.
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EMV Migration—Not as Advertised
The EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) migration to “smart cards” is a text-book example of the dissonance between expectation and execution. Since the smart cards are virtually impossible to counterfeit, the migration was expected to significantly reduce fraud. This was fueled by a massive PR campaign from the card schemes promising as much. However, the reality of the migration proved to be a lot more complicated.
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Visa’s Chargeback Clampdown
In November 2015, when Visa Inc. announced its acquisition of Visa EU, the markets barely seemed to notice the $23.4 billion transaction. Visa shares continued their steady blue-chip climb unfazed. But when the new Visa modified its fraud and chargeback monitoring in 2016, the other shoe dropped, right on top of high-risk merchants.
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