Pursuing credit card fraud by IP?

[dickbaker]

I just got hit with another chargeback for $513. That's a total of $1079 this month.

It was from December 3rd, before the first fraudulent transaction, and before my other thread about being ripped off by credit card thieves.

My shopping cart records the IP of the customer. I haven't been able to find a site that lists IP's of thieves. Seems like it would be a good idea.

It also seems like it would be easy enough for the police to get the name and address of the person whose computer was used in the theft. I assume it would take a warrant, but isn't it possible?

Let your guard down just a couple of times and they get you. Dang.

[philbish]

I imagine most smart fraudsters would use a proxy. Honestly, its probably not worth your time or effort to pursue. I'd just re-evaluate your fraud screening procedures, and write this one off.

[bwnbwn]

dickbaker IP's are one way but not a good way. What about all AOL's orders. You just have to invest more time in checking no other way to be 100% sure.

Case point. Just got an order 200+ to ship to another address. Ok checked the card everything checked out down the the correct phone number. Most would go ahead and ship since everthing checked out...Nope not me I want to talk to the owner so we called the owner.
He didn't place this order FRAUD.

This person had everthing correct but the 2 minutes it took us to call saved me 250.00 bucks.

dickbaker I hate to tell ya this you more than likely have more coming since you shipped 2 I am sure you have been hit multiple times after that.

Better go over all the orders after the last chargeback and make sure before you get hit with more chargeback fees, and a possible credit card processing fee increase due to you excessive chargebacks.

If you find more and I really suspect you will issue a refund now so you can show the order was credited before the chargeback was issued and this will keep you record cleaner.

[StoutFiles]

Some businesses have a strict policy of only sending merchandise to the billing address, which will eliminate almost all fraud. To bend this rule a personal phone call like bwnbwn did would suffice.

[wyweb]

Agree with philbish. IP is not guaranteed anything as most fraud will use proxy.

A company I have worked with for many years requires scan of actual CC (questionable sales only). Only last 4 numbers need to be revealed and customer can conceal the rest. It seems harsh but it establishes that buyer has actual possession of CC.

Since this was initiated, my fraud sales with this company have been reduced to almost nothing.

[MrHard]

The computer is not enough, you would need to prove the owner used the computer (sorry, I had a party and my friend did it).

[StoutFiles]

Since this was initiated, my fraud sales with this company have been reduced to almost nothing.

I wonder what that did to sales though, there had to be customers who didn't want to bother with that step.

[dickbaker]

bwnbwn, I had the same thought as you, and checked all orders placed since the two that resulted in chargebacks. There were only a couple of orders that shipped to another address, and in both it was to the person's business.

Where orders are shipped to a second address, I'm just going to have to have the credit card companies contact the customer to verify that he authorized the transaction, and then record the CC company employee's name or a confirmation number.

With my profit margins being what they are, it will take about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks of orders to make up for the loss from these two chargebacks. Actually, chargeback isn't the correct term, since I'm refunding before it reaches the chargeback point.

[bwnbwn]

dickbacker I have tried this

I'm just going to have to have the credit card companies contact the customer

It just won't happen the CC companies don't give a rats ---!

I tried this route long time ago made a request 3 weeks gone by no response so I finally called the customer's phone number myself. It was good but the customer was so upset it hadn't been shipped they said forget it.

This will have to be done by your company if you want it done.

Glad to hear you don't have anymore bad orders that is a relief.....

[dickbaker]

If the phone number the customer provides is one that matches the address in a search on one of the online phone directories, that's fine. More often than not, though, the customer gives a cell phone number that the CC company doesn't have on file.

At that point the only way to contact the customer is through the CC company.

I thought it might be a good idea to have a website where online merchants could enter addresses that had turned out to be fraudulent for them, so that other merchants could check addresses. The problem with that is that there's all sorts of potential for people to enter addresses that are not fraudulent just for kicks, not to mention the potential for libel suits. Also, if the bad guys move, the new residents probably won't appreciate having their address on a list of scammers.

[wyweb]

I wonder what that did to sales though, there had to be customers who didn't want to bother with that step.

Point taken. I'm sure we lost some but the impact has been negligible. Again, only orders that are questionable are even asked to do this. Everything else is processed as usual. Fraud sales are high in this particular niche. Personally, I'm glad to see it.

[bwnbwn]

Just a note for those that take Google Checkout as a payment option. For reasons unknown we have had about 2 orders done today through Google that were all fraud. The orders were caught and declined by Google but this is more of a heads up for all to be on the guard for Fraud orders coming in through Google.

We really have never had this happen before (2-4 years or however long Google has been doing processing)so there might be some type of hole they have discovered in Google Checkout to slip bad orders through.