STOP CREDIT CARD FRAUD AND SAVE MONEY FOR YOUR BUSINESS, WITH SOTPAY
For as long as there have been payment cards, there have been ways for criminals to steal. From cloned cards at petrol stations to groups of sophisticated hackers individuals to small businesses, charities to corporations, organisations have been exposed to fraudulent activity when accepting card payments, either in person, over the telephone, or when making or receiving online payments.
DID YOU KNOW?
2019 saw businesses become the victims of a total £671m of card-related fraud in the UK, with 2.1m instances of fraud from Card-not-Present transactions alone.
A card not present transaction, also known as CNP, is a remote payment made by card, usually by telephone or online, which has always typically required a level of trust between the merchant, the payer, and their respective banks. Calling by telephone, for example, presents many challenges and risks, and for none more so than the merchant.
THE MERCHANT
As a business which accepts card payments, all merchants are open to two main risks, Credit Card Fraud and Friendly Fraud.
CREDIT CARD FRAUD
Credit Card Fraud is the most prevalent and widely known form of risk to a merchant which accepts card payments. Criminals will use compromised, or stolen card details to attempt to make a purchase of usually highly desirable items. Once the transaction is completed and the product or service has been delivered, the genuine cardholder would begin a payment dispute with their bank or credit issuer, and funds are then returned to them, usually at the merchant's expense, as they are left without the stock or the revenue.
DID YOU KNOW?
There are 13.5m lost or stolen card details available to purchase on the Dark Web for as little as £5?
FRIENDLY FRAUD
A growing threat to businesses that accept card-not-present payments; Friendly Fraud occurs when a customer makes a purchase via a card-not-present transaction, but then begins the process of notifying their bank to dispute the knowledge of making, or approving the transaction. If the merchant is unable to prove that the payment was indeed made by the cardholder, it leaves them once again without stock or revenue, and the customer with illegally obtained goods.
THE CUSTOMER
With the vast majority of the UK's population in ownership of a payment card of some type, many have grown accustomed to simply reading out their card details over the telephone to voices that they trust as representatives of the organisation they wish to pay, however, there is very little to stop rogue employees from quickly recording card details.
PAYMENT CARD FRAUD
Business owners or employees could potentially record, and then either sell, share, or use the stolen card details to make their own purchases elsewhere. In the social distancing and working-from-home era that has developed in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, employees are currently given more trust with customer card details than ever before, and with rising debt and risks of unemployment, the temptation grows stronger to make ends meet in fraudulent ways.
HOW ARE CNP TRANSACTIONS SO DANGEROUS TO A BUSINESS?
Put simply, an unsecured card not present transaction does not enable the merchant to verify that the person holding the card is the genuine cardholder. An authorised transaction at the bank does not mean that the money now belongs to the merchant. An authorised transaction simply confirms that there are funds available in the account, and that the card is not lost or stolen at that time, it does not protect that revenue from fraud related chargebacks.
WHAT IS A FRAUD-RELATED CHARGEBACK?
A chargeback is a demand by a cardholder and their card provider, of a retailer, to compensate for loss on a fraudulent or disputed transaction.
DID YOU KNOW?
On average, fraud-related chargebacks and
chargeback management cost UK businesses 8% of
their revenue in 2018 and approximately 50,000 jobs
were lost as a direct result of chargeback fraud.
(*Barclays research conducted by YouGov. May
2018)
HIGHER TRANSACTION FEES
Because a non-authenticated transaction carries a greater risk with it, banks charge higher rates per transaction, costing merchants across the world millions of pounds in unnecessary fees.
HOW DO I STOP IT?
There’s no guaranteed way of 100% eradicating chargeback fraud from a merchant’s business, but by ensuring additional checks are made on each transaction at the point of paying, the liability is shifted back to the bank, so that fraud-related chargebacks are reduced, and in most cases, eradicated altogether.
WHICH ADDITIONAL CHECKS DO I NEED TO MAKE TO AVOID FRAUD-RELATED CHARGEBACKS AND REDUCE MY TRANSACTION FEES?
You need to ensure that any card-not-present payment is verified and authenticated by the cardholder. E-commerce websites will do this by requesting a one-time password be entered, or that the 3D secure password is entered at the first purchase before the card may be used to make a purchase. It is not generally possible to do this by telephone or any other direct distance payment without the help of additional software.
SO, WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
Introducing SOTpay, by Gala Technology. SOTpay is a cloud-based Card-Not-Present payment solution which enables merchants and organisations of any size to take secure, authenticated and PCI DSS compliant payments across many modern channels, including by telephone, email, web chat, SMS text, social media, and even via video conferencing.
WHAT MAKES SOTPAY TRANSACTIONS SECURE AND AUTHENTICATED?
SOTpay actively works alongside merchants, card providers, open banking providers, and banks themselves to ensure that each transaction gains an added level of authentication by the cardholder, such as a 3D Secure password, or selected digits from an online banking password. This information is only known by the cardholder, and therefore provides instant verification of the integrity of the payment, effectively shifting liability of the payment from the merchant, to the bank that authorised the payment.
What does this mean for me as a merchant?
It means that fraud-related chargeback deficits in your banking accounts will disappear very quickly.
Sounds good. How expensive is it?
As a pay-as-you-go, cloud-based solution, SOTpay is relatively low cost, and does not require massive outlay to bring your company into PCI DSS compliance. There is no complicated hardware to install, and because SOTpay will ensure your card-not-present payments are fully secure, you would also see a reduction or eradication of non-secure transaction fees, which are also commonly known as Premium Transaction Charges. So, not only is this payment system cheaper than most, and free of hardware, it can actively reduce other parts of your payment and banking related spending at the same time.
In fact, SOTpay will enable retailers to request secure, card-not-present payments via:
● Email link
● SMS texted link
● Social Media chat channels
● Live Web Chat platforms
● Video Conferencing platforms
● Electronic Invoice
● QR Codes
DOWNLOAD THE APPROPRIATE BROCHURE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
WHO ARE GALA TECHNOLOGY?
Gala Technology has won several international industry awards for the work done on SOTpay. Awards for:
● Security Solution of the Year
● Best International Card Not Present Program
● PCI Award for Excellence
● Best Use of Technology
● Security Innovation of the Year
WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Simply visit galatechnology.co.uk or call 01709 911661 to arrange for your free, no obligation payments
review and have a chat with the team about how SOTpay can potentially save your business thousands of
pounds, and eradicate credit card fraud for good.
SOTpay. Secure. Comply. Protect.
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