E-commerce fraud prevention guide

As the world continues to become more and more digital, so fraud is growing stronger. This is a constant concern for companies, as the impact of fraud translates into costs for excessive chargebacks, fraud prevention efforts and lost merchandise.

Fraud demands urgent attention from all merchants that accept online payments. Protecting your online business requires a commitment to gaining knowledge and applying best practices to manage the evolving threat of fraud.

The signs of e-commerce fraud

Here are the most common signs that will help you take validation measures on certain transactions to prevent potential fraud:

Inconsistent order data

A basic red flag for fraud is inconsistent data within an order. For example: a person in Mexico, with a card from China, is buying in Panama.

Another common case, easy to detect, is if an email based on a name has a different name than the name on the payment or billing form.

First time customers

While being a first-time buyer alone may not necessarily attract their attention, it is advisable to ensure that the customer's characteristics and information appear legitimate. A good practice is to confirm that contact details, such as email and phone, are real.

Multiple transactions with different cards

The rule of thumb is that shoppers do not have more than three credit cards, or do not usually use all of their cards to make online purchases for security reasons. Therefore, receiving transactions from the same user with three or more credit cards should be a red flag of suspicion, especially if they try to use them one after the other.

Unexpectedly large orders

A large purchase may be exciting at first, but validation measures should certainly be taken to ensure the legitimacy of the purchase.

Scammers will try to steal as much money as possible before they are caught, so they will spend much more than any of your typical customers would.

Urgent delivery of the order

A fraudster, once the purchase is made, will want to get the product as soon as possible before they are caught and the approved transaction is flagged as a chargeback.

It is recommended to be very careful with those buyers who do not want to respect the delivery time policies and request the immediacy of delivery.

Multiple rejected transactions from the same customer

A person trying to use the same card while entering the wrong data several times may indicate someone who is trying to guess some of the data.

Any data that is clearly false

Although it may seem obvious, this is the main sign and why you should be wary of data that appears to be made up. Emails that look fake (gracias@123455.com) or fake phone numbers.  You can find patterns in emails such as:

first name + last name + number (juanperez1988@gmail.com)

first name + number (gloria2020@hotmail.com)

This happens because they use the email formats recommended by an email service (such as gmail or hotmail) when creating an account.

Multiple orders of the same item

Stores that offer a product are the most likely to be victims of fraud, since the purchased good can be easily resold. Therefore, the fraudster will try to get several pieces of a product. For example: a clothing store receives an order for 5 pants of different sizes.

Unexpected international orders

If your business does not promote or operate internationally, receiving orders from abroad is a clear warning sign. This is because credit cards from abroad have a high possibility of being fraudulent.

Order delivered in public places or picked up by someone other than the cardholder

A fraudster will always request that the order be delivered to a public place other than an office or residence, or picked up by a person other than the supposed cardholder. This is so as not to get caught. It tends to happen most often in transactions made with foreign credit cards.