DavidP - 9:46 am on Aug 24, 2000 (gmt 0)

>> I don't know how to frame a warning to UK ECommerce businesses

The level of caution when dealing with Internet orders needs to be high regardless of where the business is based. We deal with several UK ecommerce merchants and fraudulent orders have been received from many European countries, with most from the UK.

In the UK you can request a 'Code 10' authorisation for any transaction and it should be sought on every occasion where you have the slightest suspicion. If you operate in a market where fraud is commonplace, then I would suggest you took a 'Code 10' for every Internet order. There are a number of other steps you can take, and contacting the customer by phone can be revealing if you have doubts.

The obvious fraud attempts are the easiest to deal with - bin them.

Safest practice - an authorised transaction, shipped to the verified cardholder address, signed for by the cardholder. Even this still carries risk, unfortunately to you not the bank.

The cost of fraudulent transactions is another overhead to your business. Despite everything you do to try to prevent it, it can and probably will happen on occasion. I can only suggest that you build it in as a factor to your pricing policy.