Even senior IT professionals should review these tips. While they may know some of the suggested precautions, there is a high likelihood that they may not know that their organization doesn’t follow them. It is not uncommon for even IT departments to be unaware of the details of an implementation.

E-Commerce Security Tips

Make sure you have an Address Verification System (AVS), which will run automatically when the order is placed. AVS matches the customer’s credit card number with his or her billing zip code. The AVS can be set at a higher level to match the credit card with the customer’s complete billing address, but companies can run the risk of getting many false positives with this higher setting.

Screen orders that meet certain criteria for an additional level of verification and follow this process consistently every day. For example, screen all orders over $200 going to a PO Box or scheduled for overnight delivery, so the order may be put on hold and reviewed before processed.

The trick to fraud is managing by exception. Most merchants add more people instead of improving their systems. Let the system catch the exception instead of trying to eyeball each order.

Pre-authorize credit cards automatically when the order is placed. Setup systems to charge the card automatically when the order is shipped out. Don’t store credit card numbers, just store authorization codes to protect your business from any kind of security breach such as a server hack.

Ensure that your fraud prevention is not limited to credit card orders. Bogus checks and Western Union transfers also have a high incidence of fraud. It may be prudent to put database encryption in place as well.

If you don’t have time to build something fancy - you could reduce fraud by simply running a fraud check report on select parameters two or three times a day. This will help to red-flag orders that are suspect. Even something as basic as this could cut your fraud by 50 percent.

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