(Kind of a continuation of the other credit card thread I started while I was still doing research...)

I officially added plain ol' Mastercard and Visa to my list of payment options (I'm still keeping PayPal). I have a general list of the things to look out for in terms of credit card fraud and potential chargebacks, but I was wondering if anyone had any more specific tips or helpful experiences to share. Have you had any fraud issues or chargebacks?

At least once a month Ill get an international order with a really large order amount. I always just email them saying I need the CVV number on the card and that Ill verify the card before I process it and they usually never get back in contact. I also just got an order for two somewhat higher end items that is billed to a us address and wants it to be shipped to Vietnam. Im going to double check that one too.

That's a good tip regarding the CVV. I'm making it required input in Mal's. I hear much of the international fraud is related to a really large order or the other kind you mentioned where a US buyer wants a shipment to another country or vice versa. Blah, this is scary. I'm sure it's worth it, but scary!

the majority of fraud (or potential fraud) that i receive is very similar to what KittenCndy explained earlier. but i wanted to add a warning as well...
last summer i was scammed big time by a customer who placed two very large orders in less than a 24 hour period. he had a MasterCard with a US bank and the billing address/name all checked out. he was even able to supply the CVV numbers on the back of the card. but he wanted everything shipped to his 'little sister' in the philippines. seemed kosher to me because everything could be properly verfied and there didn't seem any harm in shipping gifts overseas.

BUT as it turned out, he had stolen an entire wallet from someone so he could give me any information i needed. addresses and name from drivers license, credit card was in hand so he had access to all numbers required, etc. it was 30 days before the owner of the credit card contacted his bank about my transaction. which of course resulted in a chargeback.

sometimes actually calling the card holders bank to verify the info with a human is a good idea. or for some orders, giving it a 24/48 hour delay before verifing in case of foul play. i think now if i had waiting a day or two, maybe the original card holder would have reported his wallet stolen and when i called to verify his info, would have been able to catch the order before i shipped.

i *hate* to always sound like the bearer of awful news on these credit card posts. i've just had some orders where i got burned, so i wanted to add that side too. i'll get some good ideas and post to even out the scale of energies ;-)

Great tip! And don't feel bad about being the bearer of bad news -- this is real life and it's better to know before issues like this hit. I think any time I have an order for a very large amount (especially if the person wants it shipped to some other address, US or not) I'll call the card holder's bank to double-check.

I think I'm all set in terms of fraud, but what about chargebacks? Have you had customers just flat out decide not to pay for an item and have their credit card company reverse it? How often does this happen?

in terms of chargebacks were a customer has just flat out refused to pay... no, thank goodness, that has not happended to me. knock on wood!

the only problems i have ever had have been fraud related - which have resulted in chargebacks on my end. but not like you are asking. good news for once!

Ok, I just thought of a stupid question...how do you know what bank the card is under so you can call them if needbe? Talking to a human when you're not sure is a great suggestion, but I can't figure out how you'd know who to call.

in general i believe you just call your own bank that you have the merchant account through. i've done this and they were able to verify the card information.

Thanks, swank! That's what I was thinking, but since funkyutopia mentioned calling the cardholder's bank I thought maybe that gives you more information, but I can't figure out how you'd know what the cardholder's bank is!

yeah, i'm not sure of knowing anyway to check the cardholder's bank either. i think your merchant bank should be able to answer any of those questions however since they have to send the info out for processing anyway.

whenever i need to verify a customer's info, i call my merchant account and read them the card number. they have a huge database that links the card number to the card carriers bank. they then supply me with that phone number and i call the card holder's bank personally. the reps with my merchant account say they cannot verify a card holders info on their end. they say a verbal verification must come from the card holder's bank. i don't know if that is just my merchant's policy or what. but that's how i handle less than perfect verifications.