I am unimpressed with the fraud reporting procedure and tools that the credit card companies provide. Since Visa and MasterCard have each bank take on the risk of fraud, the fraud reporting is disjointed at best. Who do you contact and report that a credit card order you received over the Internet is fraudulent?
I recently tried to report a Discover card order that was fraudulent and an American Express card order that was fraudulent. Both were a time suck to say the least. With American Express, I thought I give it a try since it was my first time and it would be a good deed. I had to call American Express twice to get to the right department. Then after getting to the right department, I was grilled on my identity. The entire phone call took about 15 minutes.
Really, this should be an online tool that every merchant can use to report the transaction as bad.
For example, our payment gateway is AuthorizeNet. For every transaction, there would be a “report” button next to that transaction. This report button would allow the merchant (who has already been authenticated via login) to submit paper work (via attachment) and details about the fraudulent transaction. Once received, this would be routed to the correct bank and/or security personnel at the respective payment services. So, regardless of whether the payment originated from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express (AMEX), the procedure for the merchant would be the same. The routing of the information is handled in the back end and the merchant does not need to be involved in the how.
Identity theft and online fraud is a serious problem, but I do not think the credit card companies are leveraging the help of merchants to combat fraud. I hope they do in the future.
Report Fraud
When fraud happens—important contacts
Even with strong prevention measures in place, occasional fraudulent transactions can happen. Be sure to have specific contact information easily available, should you ever need it.