Savvy Fraud Modules for the High-Risk Merchant

As a high-risk merchant, you did your research and found a knowledgeable, compliant, and secure payment partner to process your electronic payments. You work hard to make sure you are sending the proper payment authorizations and establishing an excellent customer service reputation. Despite all your best efforts, one area you neglected to make sure you are covered on is merchant fraud. Sound familiar?

Merchant fraud is more costly than chargebacks, fines, and fees. It exposes your business to criminal activity and quickly leads to brand reputational damage. Merchant fraud can take many forms and shapes. Therefore it is essential to be aware of the different fraud activity out there and what you can do to mitigate the risk and apply the correct security measures – from the get-go. If you’re working with an established high-risk merchant provider, such as Payment Savvy, expect to have several fraud modules available at your fingertips – with no additional cost to you. Let’s take a look at the fraud modules we offer so you can best apply certain features to your payment processing flow.

Payment Processing 101

Before we discuss our extensive fraud applications, we want to be sure you understand the basics. As a high-risk merchant, you applied for and established a merchant account with an acquiring bank. This allows you the ability to accept electronic payments – such as credit cards, debit cards, or ACH check payments – from your customers in exchange for goods and services. Along with your merchant account, you received a payment gateway – think of this as the electronic highway where payments are passed back and forth in terms of approvals and declines.

The online payment gateway – as known as a virtual terminal –  allows for automatic daily batches closing, the refund or voiding of payments, transactional reporting downloads, and even customer management.  As we discuss the fraud modules available to Payment Savvy merchants, it is from this payment gateway, where each will be activated and monitored.

Types of Merchant Fraud Modules

As we stated previously, payment fraud modules to help detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. While we offer several fraud modules to find the perfect combination for your business needs, the modules are broken down into two types:

1. Universal – As the name implies, if you activate a fraud module under the Universal Modules Section, the settings are applied to all sources. A source here refers to how the payment is received – either via your online web form, a recurring payment, manually entered in the payment gateway, or perhaps received via API integration.
2. Per Source – When activating a fraud module under a Per Source heading, the module only is applied to the chosen source. For example, perhaps you wish a specific fraud module in place for all web payments but not for automatic, recurring payments.

Fraud Module Descriptions

With all the nitty-gritty stuff out of the way, let’s now look at the fraud modules available to you for securing your payment transactions. Below are the options, along with a brief description of their purpose. Please keep in mind each can be set at either the Universal or Per Source level. If you have any questions on how a module might best assist your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Savvy team members for a more in-depth review.

•  Advanced Transaction Filter – Allows for transactions to be blocked by defining a custom ruleset. For example, a customer’s email address does not contain a valid domain (@gmail.com, @outlook.com, etc.)
•  AVS (Address Verification System) Response – Transactions that do not match the billing street and zip code of the customer’s issuing card are not processed successfully.
• Bin Ranges – Allows blocking of transactions based on a card’s BIN number. Traditionally the first six numbers on a payment card correspond to the issuing bank. By blocking a BIN range – you can eliminate internationally-issued payment cards or card branded gift cards, for example.
• Bin Type Blocker – One can either block or accept cards using a combination of card data. For example, you can choose to accept Visa debit cards solely or never accept an American Express credit card.
• Block by Card Country – Accept or block a transaction depending on the country where the payment card was issued.
• Block by Host/IP – Block a transaction based on where the payment was processed. For example, block a single or range of IP addresses, or particular domains/subdomains.
• Card ID Checker – Enabling this module will verify the CVV code with the issuing bank.
• Card Level Results – Select the level of card you wish to accept or block. For example, choose not to process Corporate Rewards cards.
• Card Type – Just as it sounds, this fraud module allows for the blocking of transactions based on the card brand (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express).
• Country Blocker – Block or accept electronic payments based on the country the transaction initiates from.
• Credit Card Blocker – Block bad/stolen card numbers either via your custom list or the list the payment gateway maintains.
• Duplicate Detection – Prevent charges from processing more than once by verifying select payment details against an allotted time frame.
• Email Blocker – Bar transactions based on specific email addresses or domains.
• Fraud Profiler – This innovative fraud module conducts a real-time review of all payments processed and assesses the fraud risk. The evaluation is based on automated and human traffic patterns.
• Multiple Credit Cards – Some fraudsters attempt numerous card numbers back to back to see if a card is valid. Block these transactions with this module.
• Required Fields – As simple as it sounds, this module sets the fields to be completed to receive an approved response.
• Transaction Amount – Automatically decline transactions if they are outside a maximum or minimum amount.
• Zip Code Verifier – Confirm the shipping/billing zip code is consistent with the other billing/shipping information (State, City, etc.)  provided.

Say Goodbye to Fraudsters and Hello to Payment Innovation

As you can see, our payment platform goes beyond to help merchants eliminate fraudulent transactions. Above all, Payment Savvy aims to provide secure and cutting-edge payment tools to all our high-risk merchants. Whether processing payments in the debt collection industry or energy and utility industries, we are always working to ensure our clients have the best solutions available for their business needs.