Oh man, I sure hope they didn't mark you for investigation. :-) Or maybe I misunderstand you.
Here's the way it works. You have an offline terminal and merchant account for say, a retail business. This account is used for card present (run it through the terminal) and phone in orders (CNP) only. Read your contract for these accounts, it will most likely specifically state that these are the only methods for which this account is valid, usage of these accounts to process internet sales can render you liable for fines of up to 30K, or more, and charges in arrears for all the sales outside the terms of the contract. That is, every Internet sale you run through this account you will be charged for, plus the fine.
Then there is an Internet merchant account, which has a different pricing structure and different set of terms. So normally, YES, you need two accounts - one for offline sales, one for Internet - but there is a very sweet, and legal, alternative.
Get an online merchant account that has a "virtual terminal." FirstData is the one I'm most familiar with, as it has **both** a transaction gateway (the equivalent of Authorize.net) and the merchant account itself in one. A customer comes into your store, you log in to the virtual terminal on the FirstData servers and run the numbers manually, that's what it's for. Internet sales are processed through their proprietary gateway (LinkPoint.) Yes, overall the per charge fees and monthly fees are a little higher than accounts limited to one or the other, but overall it's the best of both worlds.
There are others like this, off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure A.N. has a virtual terminal, NetBilling, there are many others.
For an additional charge and lease, they'll send you a terminal, giving you the best of both, a terminal for CP swipes and CNP phone orders in the store and a valid online merchant account.
But if you're using an offline account to process Internet sales, you have yet another liability, how you're managing to get the CC info. That's another pile of bad mojo you want to eliminate from your business. The above method will eliminate this liability too, as it will be your virtual terminal where all the CC info is stored, not your servers . . . . or email . . .
