Online fraud is an unfortunate aspect of specialty retail. We have seen in increase in fraudulent activity in recent months and in partnership with our most successful independent retailer clients we’ve compiled some helpful information to help you protect yourself.
The most important element of selling online is that a trained member of your staff review every order. There is no better fraud protection than a diligent and trained person managing online business.
Common Elements of Fraudulent Orders
Fraudulent orders share some common characteristics that are easy to identify once you understand them.
- Nonsense email address commonly using @aol.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com or clerk.com
- Shipping and billing addresses don’t match
- Invalid phone number
- Paying full price plus freight, especially on large items easily found locally
- Expedited shipping
- Order total well over $100
- Orders from Florida, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee or Texas
Common Items on Fraudulent Orders
As we’ve analyzed fraudulent behaviors across our network of independent retailer websites we’ve identified these as the most common fraudulently ordered items.
- Garmin Edge, Fenix & VIRB
- GoPro cameras
- Cycleops & Kurt Kinetic trainers
- SRAM Red eTap Road Kits
What To Do With Fraudulent Orders
The process for removing a fraudulent order from your order management system is easy.
- Void the credit card authorization
- Zero out the shipping if necessary and ensure the Total Amount Due is $0.00
- Return the item(s) in the Order Contents
- Type “Order cancelled due to fraudulent activity” in Order Comments
- Change Order Status to Cancelled
- If customer contacts you say the order was flagged as fraudulent & cannot be fulfilled
- You have no obligation to proactively contact the customer
Minimizing The Risk of Fraud
Keep these simple tips at top-of-mind in order to protect your business from online fraud.
- Use a payment gateway from Authorize.net - A payment gateway filters the majority of fraudulent transactions before they reach your website. If you don’t have a payment gateway, click here to learn more.
- Review every order
- Look for common elements described above
- Trust your instincts - If it seems suspicious, it is probably fraud
- Review our Tips for Lowering the Risk of Online Fraud
We Are Here To Help
Our support team is available to help assist you and review the risks and opportunities related to having a shopping cart enabled SmartEtailing website.