In 1974, the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) was passed as an amendment to the Truth In Lending Act. It’s objective was to protect consumers from billing practices that were unfair and to provide a means to address billing errors in credit card accounts. Although this act awarded millions of consumers a way to protect themselves from unauthorized, fraudulent, and...

Originally, disputes were built to protect the buyer. These days, however, the idea of accumulating reverse charges poses a significant danger to businesses. Chargebacks are inevitable and often exceed the merchant’s expectations. Excessive rates can take a toll on your credibility, credit background, and customer loyalty. Add that to the increasing favoritism for buyers, and the situation is bottom-line threatening...

It’s dangerous to pay a deaf ear to fraud and new safety techniques if you run a business prone to payment fraud. Merchants want as much protection as possible— and adding an extra layer of protection can further reinforce your multilayer strategy. Velocity checks, for instance, are an important way to deal with fraudulent purchase attempts in your eCommerce website....

Payment Processing can become risky with an increase in refund rates. One of the many obstacles that high risk merchants have come to acknowledge is chargebacks. Chargebacks can lead to the termination of their merchant account. However, this is not the only menace that can threaten a high risk merchant’s position with acquirers. Another threat that can jeopardize their status...

Chargebacks can be the proverbial thorn in the side of every business. Originally created in order to protect consumers, unfortunately, it has become an easy way for some to commit fraud. Inevitably, this has deeply hurt businesses as they spend an inordinate amount of time, money, and energy fighting this never-ending battle.  When merchants have many chargebacks (exceeding a rate...

Transaction laundering is increasingly becoming a threat within the payments industry. According to EverCompliant, a solutions provider, in 2016 $155 billion was created from  online sales through transaction laundering in the U.S. alone. It was also found that banks were processing close to six to ten percent of “unauthorized” e-commerce sites. Out of that, three percent were discovered to be...

The ongoing fight against fraud seems to be intensifying. Specifically, Friendly Fraud is on the rise and becoming more widespread. The term “Friendly Fraud” is a misnomer as there is absolutely no “friendly” intent on the part of the cybercriminals who engage in this illegal act.  Friendly fraud, also known as chargeback fraud, happens when a customer purchases a product...

Chargebacks can quickly turn into a nightmare for business owners. A chargeback refers to the act of returning funds to a customer. The primary purpose of a chargeback is for consumer protection. However, this mechanism is often understood, misused and abused and can have a crippling effect on merchants. A chargeback occurs when a cardholder requests that their bank reverse...

According to a report on Statista.com, retail e-commerce sales in 2019 reached a whopping 3.53 trillion US dollars. Online retail’s revenues are expected to reach 6.54 trillion US dollars by the year 2022. The soaring numbers indicate that online shopping is continuing to grow in popularity worldwide. With this much cash floating across the interwebs, there is no doubt that...

The definition of a chargeback is the act of reversing a payment and returning funds to a customer. At first, it may seem as if a credit card chargeback is a traditional refund, but there is a big difference. Instead of going to the business to process a refund, the customer goes to the issuing bank which then directly takes...