By Mike Fletcher
As the longtime owner of a couple of popular online stores, I’ve learned the hard way - through experience - that online criminals are constantly trying to take advantage of the ease in online shipping to commit fraud.

For consumers whose credit cards are used in online fraud, there’s no loss. The bogus charges are almost always refunded. But for online retailers who get conned into processing the orders, there is no relief.

If it’s fraud, you get a chargeback. You’re out the order, the merchandise you shipped and the online fees charged by your credit card processor.

Those chargebacks are never pleasant. In the early days, I had my share. But after plenty of grumbling, I decided to consider them what financial expert and radio talk show host Dave Ramsey calls a “stupid tax.”

Then, I set my mind to learn from them so I wouldn’t keep paying the “stupid tax.”

I started by making a list of every chargeback I was hit with over a 12-month period. I rigorously examined them, looking for patterns and similarities. As a result, I instituted some security procedures and checklists that have worked well in greatly reducing the fraud losses from my stores.

I still get stung, but very rarely these days.

The one single step that has most helped reduce fraudulent orders for me and my stores is to eliminate shipping to any location other than North America. I know, that’s a drastic step. But while I no doubt do indeed do lose some legitimate business from overseas customers, it has been my experience that most fraud originates overseas.

And my experience is not unusual. Once recent study I have seen, from Cybersource, notes that fraud rates on overseas orders are four times the level of North American orders. Thus, not allowing orders from places other than the U.S. and Canada helps eliminate many of the problems.

Still, almost every day, some thief still tries to get through. Most of them are from criminals trying to see if a credit card number they have is still good. They’ll place an order and provide a ship-to address in the U.S.

Below are my top 10 suggestions for catching the fraud before you complete the transaction. As many of these flags as you have on an order, the more apt it is bogus:

1) Shipping FedEx overnight is a frequent marker. The thief figures the merchant will move so fast to process the order that there won’t be too much scrutiny. A dead give away and cause for you to seriously question the oder is when the overnight shipping costs approximate the item’s cost.

2) Look at the phone number and e-mail address provided by the customer. Does the area code match the city and state of the customer? If the customer uses a free Yahoo!, Hotmail, or Google account, does it correspond to the customer’s name? Thieves always use these free accounts. So, of course, do many genuine customers. But an e-mail to a domain not associated with free web-based accounts, with a username (the part before the “@” sign) that matches the customer, is usually good.

3) If your store has referrer info on orders, like Yahoo! Stores provides, for example, examine how the customer found you. My store’s order info lists the search phrase they used, or the last page they came from. Thieves tend to search on phrases like “international shipping” or “overnight delivery” instead of the category or keywords products are advertised under.

4) Check the IP address. And IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique numerical identifier that much like a house address. In this case, it identifies the computer network that the order came from. Your oder processing software should also show you the IP address that the order was sent from. Check it out. On my Yahoo! Stores, all I have to do is click the address and it does a trace, identifying the network location. If it’s overseas, shipping to the U.S., I consider it fraud unless I can call the phone number and talk to a real customer.

5) Beware of mail forwarding operations and shipping to Post Office Boxes. Watch out for mail processing locations. Many thieves order your items from overseas and have them shipped to maildrops. Often, instead of a box number, these locations can be spotted by having a “suite” number under the address line. Miami and Houston have a bunch of maildrops serving South America. Seattle and Los Angeles have them for Asia. New Your City handles Africa and Eastern Europe. If suspicious, run the customer address through Google. Often you’ll see it listed to a service for mail forwarding company.

6) Be suspicious if the shipping address and the billing address on the order are different. At the very least, whenever this happens, don’t process the order unless you call the customer to confirm the order. Some stores even make it a policy to ship only to the billing address listed for the credit card. I get a lot of orders from parents buying my products for their kids who are away at college so that’s not a policy we impose. But we always call when the addresses are different.

7) Always expect fraud when you get multiple orders submitted from the same customer in sequence, using the same credit card, or the same ship-to address.

8) Beware of unusually large orders. You know from your oder processing reports,what the average customer buys. You know what is a big order. Is it over $250? Over $500? Over $1,000? When the norms are exceeded you should carefully examine the order.

9) Be skeptical when you get orders with multiple quantities of the same product. It is common for fraudulent orders to be large quantities of a single item.

10) Look for typos, grammar and punctuation errors. Serious customers make mistakes in filling our your oder forms. But not nearly as often as thieves do.

If I had to boil everything down to a single piece of advice, it would be this: When in doubt, try to reach the customer. If the phone is disconnected, mark it as fraud. If there is no answer, leave a message on the answering machine. Then send an e-mail. If after 24 hours the e-mail and the call are not returned, do not process.

These are just some of the fraud indicators and precautions I’ve learned over the years. They are by no means exhaustive. But I have instructed all my employees to filter our orders through skeptical eyes. As a result, we’ve diminished our chargebacks to only two or three cases a year.

The author is the owner of the Online Christian Shopper (http://www.onlinechristianshopper.com) Christian T-Shirt shop and the Christian Jewelry Online (http://www.christianjewelryonline.com) Christian jewelery store.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Fletcher

Every computer that has ever been connected to the internet, and has had no protection during this time, more than likely got infected with some kind of malicious programs that corrupted its information. The internet is the number one provider of malicious software and also the provider of all the antidotes you need so that you can rid yourselves of these programs.

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If you don’t have any protection software when you are connected to the internet, you will a potential target to the majority of malware that roam the internet in search for their next victim. Those that don’t know, if they are infected or not, should run some diagnostic tools, on their system, so that they can be aware of the dangers, which they have downloaded without being aware of the content. In any case, if you find yourself infected with malicious software, the best course of action would be to install tools that are able to detect and remove any unwanted bad guys that have infiltrated your system.

If you care about the security of your system files then you will need to install more than one protection programs that can keep you safe from these incoming attacks. Having more of these installed is no big thing. In fact, it is actually recommended because in case one of them fails to catch the bad guy, the other will be right on his back, making sure that he doesn’t go anywhere. The best part is that all of these programs are free to download and very easy to install, so you can have fun protecting your computer.

If you haven’t ever encountered a malware on your computer that you are either lying or you haven’t been roaming the internet for a long time. In any case, it is impossible for someone to be connected to the internet and have no malware problems as long as I know for a fact that there is software out there, that is malicious in nature and is just waiting to take a peak at you personal data so that it can corrupt it in any way possible.

To avoid any of these intrusions, you can opt for detection tools that can be downloaded for free and offer a wide variety of options of treating the malware when it is found. Never the less, there is always the licensed version of any protection software that can guarantee you protection form these attackers and it can offer you even more tools that you need in the fight against these programs. In case you don’t realize the danger that these programs pose, you need to take a look at some reviews over the internet, about the negative effect that malware has on you personal data and your system files. If that doesn’t scare you, then I don’t know what will.

You need to be well aware of the fact that these programs are not to be taken likely and can cause lots of damage to you information. In case that you don’t have protection software installed on your system yet, perhaps this would be a great time to download some and run a wide system scan to make sure that there is nothing dangerous in your system.

Okay, this has nothing to do with online marketing at first glance…. or does it?

The answer is… YES!

This is a YouTube video from the OnlineChristianShopper Christian T-Shirt and Christian clothing store. What they’ve done is figure out how to promote their product and get more exposure and links by using the higely popular video sharing service.

It’s a great idea for all of us looking to market our sites. Video works!

If you have never heard of keyloggers and you don’t know what they are, this article should give an idea on what you should be on a lookout for. These programs are not to be taken likely and any losses that you might have because of keylogger infestation is entirely your fault.

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These programs are of the highest priority level because they can really cause damage that you probably don’t need. This kind of programs have the ability of infiltrating your computer without your knowledge and then they monitor and save any keyboard activity. After accurate and complete log files of all your keyboard traffic has been created, they will be sent via the internet to a destination address where a hacker or an ill intended person could make use of the data that you have provided them.

In case all of this is too much to understand, think about giving someone the right to watch over you while you work at you computer, providing them with every password and every data entry that you have made. This is the case with keyloggers, they constantly supervise your activity, without your knowledge, and then they send the information that you have provided them, to another person that is waiting on the other line.

To avoid any situation like the ones presented, detection and removal software would be a great idea because you will be better protected from these incoming attacks and you will not have to worry about having your virtual identity if system files, being corrupted by such malicious programs. If you really care about your security and you need to be protected form any outside invaders, software that can guarantee you this protection is the best course of action you can take.

Computers have been used to perform all kinds of tasks because they do a great job in getting then done in the shortest amount of time and with the best time response. There is no doubt that a computer can do a better job than a human when it comes to performing certain tasks and this is why we should keep them safe from any problems that they might have, such as malware.

In case you have never herd of malware, these are programs that are dedicated to infiltrate your computer so that they corrupt your data or to steal personal and private information. These programs are to be taken very seriously even if they don’t cripple the computer in a way that you can’t work with anymore.

Programs that can detect and remove these intruders have been developed and with their help you can perform a wide system scan whenever you what so that you can immunize your system from any pesky problems that you might have. These tools can be free or you can purchase them for a small amount of money. The differences between them are the option that they provide when a threat has been detected. Never the less, even if it’s free or not, you still need to use such tools so that you can prevent any unpleasant surprises from happening.

Protection software that can keep malware away from your computer is easy to install and to find over the internet. The best course of action could be to do a search on a local search engine and then installing the ones that have the highest rankings. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to read some reviews about them just to be sure what you are installing and from what you are protecting yourself from.

The internet is full of malware and there are few programs that can deal with these kinds of incoming threats. When it comes to the coders that have to write programs so that they can detect and destroy such malicious programs, they have my respects because they are doing a job that will never stop.

The fact is that there will always be malware that is ready to infest your computer and in this case, coders have to work around the clock so that they can write the appropriate detection and removal programs. In fact, those that handle these programs that affect your computers must have nerves of steel. I say this because it must be really frustrating to see that there will always be other malicious programs that will surface and you must be ready to have the antidote.

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If you are a talented coder and you like a challenge, then the malware detection and removal business is the one for you. I don’t think that there is a possibility for you to get bored because you won’t have time to take a breath at the rate the malicious programs appear. In case you are a hacker and you don’t have anything better to do than write malicious software, than you could consider this as your job.

Software that can cause problems will always be written because there are those of us that make it a personal habit of finding out what other users have stored on their pc. The other reason could be because they can infiltrate and corrupt a computer without being detected and this gives them a sense of domination over other computers.

Every computer that is connected to the internet and, has no protection software is vulnerable, to attacks from malicious software that can cause millions of problems to users. These problems can be related to system file corruption and virtual identity theft, along with bank account numbers. This is no laughing matter because these programs can infiltrate your computer with ease and then run in a hidden mode so that you can’t be able to locate them.

Detection software is also available on the internet and it can be free to install, providing you with protection from these online threats. The internet could be looked at as both an infestation problem and an antidote to the infestation. The fact is that the internet can provide both of these, free of charge. Malware has proven to be a constant threat to everyone that is connected to the internet and thus, coders and companies have been trying to eliminate them for good. This cannot be done with ease because these programs are always being rewritten and then, new versions are developed by hackers.

The internet is a huge place and it would be ridiculous to think that every form of malware could ever be eliminated. These threats never go away because there will always be someone that will try to gain access to your computer without your knowledge. Software companies will continue to make lots of money from these threats, because they will sell licenses to newly developed products that they assume to be the best.

In case you have a computer and you are connected to the internet, it is imperative that you have a spyware detection and removal tool so that you can rid yourself of this problem once it appears.

There is no telling the amount of damage these malicious programs can do and the dangers they pose once they have infiltrated your computer. If, at first you don’t realize their presence, after a couple of day you will start to see a decrease in the performance of your computer. Nothing serious at first, but as time passes, you won’t be able to perform the simplest of tasks when it comes to handling your pc.

Detection software that can help you to rid yourself from these problems can be free and easy to download. In case you run into any problems while using it, you can always try another tool that can offer the sane options and protection. The advantage when using free software is that you can always change it when you think it doesn’t perform well.

Detection software can be licensed and free and I don’t need to tell you which one is better. Still, even licensed software isn’t all that invisible because there are some viruses that escape and can still penetrate your security. If this is the case, maybe it is time to change your protection level or change your protection software. Spyware is a dangerous enemy and you might not consider them to be hostile at first, but the fact is that nobody like to have their data corrupted or stolen from them. Use every precaution so that you won’t have any headache’s latter.

In case you don’t know what keyloggers are and what they do, a very simple explanation will be provided in the following article. These programs are something to be feared and you should be able to take every precaution possible so that you can avoid any unpleasant surprises that you might have.

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Keyloggers can be downloaded or installed when you run an application that you have downloaded form the internet or that a friends has sent you. Without your knowledge, you will be infected with a program that can monitor your keyboard activity and then sent it to a certain user that awaits information to be received from the keylogger. In case that you have been infected and you don’t know about it, some detection tools are required so that you can stop this invasion on your personal and private life.

There is nothing, worst that people knowing what you type all day or the things you say while you are online. Passwords and other important information can be stolen and then used against you. Security issues are to be taken into consideration when you are dealing with these types of malicious software and no matter if you have a protection system installed or not, be sure to keep it up to date. These little buggers can be quite a pain in the neck when it comes to information theft and industrial espionage.

If you are a big company and you need to keep some information private, you must invest in the security of those computer that hold the information, most likely, you should consider having them removed from the local network onto a more secure line of data transfers.

Malware is present all across the internet and in case you think you have been lucky enough to avoid infestation by one, you are sadly mistaken. These programs are developed in such a way that you will never be aware that you have one installed and running on your computer. They will never make you aware of their presence because this would be in disadvantage for them. They will try to remain hidden for as long as they can and cause a progressive amount of damage to your file system or your personal information.

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These programs will continue to roam the internet forever and they will continue to be developed as long as new software and protection tools are created to stop them. There will never be a perfect tool to prevent these kinds of attacks because there will always appear a newer version of some virus or a new spyware that can’t be detected by regular software. In these cases, all you can do is run your everyday updates to your protection software and hope that an update will be released soon so that you won’t have much data to loose.

The best way to keep malware out of your computers is by installing software that can detect these pesky problems. I’m not talking about single software, but installing more than one so that in case malware should breach a first, it will be stopped by the second or the third. These procedures are common for many users and they are highly recommended in case you have a great deal of data and personal information that you don’t want people to get their hands on.

I will never understand those people that stay connected to the internet without any protection measure and like to download every thing that everyone sends them. These people don’t seem to understand the kind of malicious programs, roam the internet or the damage they can cause once they have infiltrated your computer.

It seems that is up to me to shed some light on the matter and to tell you that you need protection software that can keep you safe from malware attacks or any other malicious activity. These detection tools are free and easy to download from the internet and all you have to do is to install them on your computer and then run a diagnostic on your files. I’m sure that you will be surprised when you will find out that you have more than a dozen spyware or malware on your system.

If, the security of your computer and your system files is one of your top priorities, then all you have to do is use these free downloadable detection tools and immunize your system from anything that has infiltrated it. If you are safe for now, that doesn’t mean that you will not be attacked in the future, so do yourself a favor and don’t uninstall these detection tools, because you might need them.

My advice to you would be to install as many detection tools as you can and to keep your computer up to date with regular updates to your protection software, so that in case some poor malicious programs will try to infiltrate you, it will be destroyed on sight.