Everywhere we look, there are scammers and fraudsters who try to profit from consumers and businesses, both large and small. Fraud always has two victims: the customer and the merchant. Both customers and merchants lose money from eCommerce fraud. Customers can have their payment card data or identities stolen, but their money is typically protected. However, merchants are responsible for costs associated with fraudulent purchases, like chargeback costs and fees.
What you can do to help protect your website and your business:
- Check your SSL certificate.
- Monitor for malware.
- Maintain consistent platform backups.
NOTE: Synchrony strongly recommends setting your eCommerce gateway to Shipping Address. This means that orders will process only if the customer’s billing address and the order shipping address match.
If you allow orders to be sent to addresses other than the customer’s billing address, you may expose your business to a much higher risk of fraud.
Here are some key things to watch for:
- Delivery address is different than billing address.
- Delivery address is an unusual shipping address.
- Multiple shipping addresses for a single customer.
“Friendly fraud”—This is when the customer argues a charge was fraudulent and then tries to use a different credit card/account to attempt to receive the funds from the fraudulent chargeback(s).