E-Commerce Beginners Guide: Protecting Your Customers From Credit Card Fraud

As every business, e-commerce businesses face certain business risks. Credit card fraud is the major risk that is inseparably connected with Internet transactions. Card-not-present mechanism presents vast possibilities for fraudulent activities. Losses for businesses from fraudulent transactions are estimated to be from 10 to 40 billion USD in 2006, despite the efforts of Visa and MasterCard to introduce the advanced security mechanisms (Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code). The majority of Internet users (69 to 76 percent) have concerns over online and offline credit card fraud.

As a merchant, you should be aware of these facts and make sure that your customers feel secure enough to purchase goods and services from your web-site. This purpose can be achieved by but are not limited to the following actions:

• clearly display your credentials on the web-site (corporate identity, physical address, detailed contact information, etc.)
• make sure your payment processor provides the secure payment channel and supports Visa and MasterCard online verification technologies - they are used by many credit card users at the moment
• register your business with some public organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau
• state your privacy policy in a clear and concise manner. Be sure to indicate that you are not storing the customer's credit card information in any form. Indicate that you are not going to use or disclose the customer's personal information for any purpose unless you have the customer's written permission to do so 

Remember that the majority of Internet users are well aware of the identity theft issues and they will appreciate your preoccupation with their concerns.