Online Fraud

If you sell on the Internet then you are probably right in the strike line of all the modern day fraudsters. The Internet on online ecommecre business are subject to thousands of transactions happening online with other people's credit card details from stolen cards and cloned credit cards and we have our fair share of these.

Every day the Affordable Group have around 20 fraud orders coming through our systems. What does this mean?

If you send goods out when someone’s card details have been used then the person using someone else’s card will get some free goods and the card holder will lose their money. Then they will contact their bank and raise a 'charge back'. This gives (or should in theory) the company a chance to prove that the order was genuine. If they can't and they will not be able to, then the money is taken from the merchant + normally a £10 fine.

So the merchant has lost the goods, the value of the goods + any shipping costs + £10 fine. It can be very expensive if you are not careful.

Well you may think you are protected by your card processing company like WorldPay or PayPal but you are not. You the merchant are 100% responsible and you constantly have to check orders to make sure they are legitimate and they are going to the correct person.

It is about time the credit card and debit card companies launched an online chip and pin service and put some responsibility back with the card holder.

We would love to hear your views on this, please click the contact us link and use the online form.
Let us know of your case studies and views and ideas.

The Affordable Group is split into three main areas.

• Publishing
• Design
• Ecommerce

The publishing side to the business runs our online and printed magazines. Sites include essexuncovered.com, recordscout.com and justessex.co.uk

For more information on our publishing services click here.

Affordable Services Ltd operates under the name Affordable Websites when designing websites. In operation since 2000 and with over 100 happy clients Affordable Websites is strong in its market place for providing small to medium sized business websites. For more information on our website design services, click here.

As well as developing many ecommerce websites for clients around the country, Affordable Services Ltd has a growing portfolio of its own sites all selling quality products at affordable prices. Click here for more information on our eCommerce are the the business.