Black Friday and the holiday season are upon us and digital sales are projected to be higher than ever! However, with more online sales comes an increase in fraudulent transactions. Luckily there are ways to protect your business and prevent fraudulent online purchases.  We've put together some tips to help keep your business safe while fulfilling all those online orders.

• The simplest and most effective preventative measure is to make sure you have AVS/CVV verification set up through your payment processor. This easy step will automatically allow your payment processor to flag the majority of high risk transitions online.
• Look into apps like Fraudblock (Shopify compatible!) that immediately flag/block high risk transactions from going through. This allows you to manually verify the transaction on your own.
• Be wary of expedited shipping requests *especially* when billing and shipping addresses differ.
• Don't be shy to request additional information to verify a purchase from clients whose transactions have been flagged as high risk. Remember: licenses and bills/statements are easily photoshopped and not always the best verification tool.
•  Request a photo of the back of the credit card used to make the transaction. Oftentimes there is a number on the back you can call as a retailer to verify the purchase.
• Listen to your instincts! If you think something is fishy, it probably is!

How do you verify a transaction?

• Make sure the Card Verification Value is correct (CVV) 
•  Billing and street address match 
•  Billing country matches the country from which the order was placed 
•  Payment completed in one attempt 
•  Payment completed with one card 
•  Shipping address is within 5km from location of the IP address 
• The IP address used to palace the order isn’t a high risk internet connection 
•  When in doubt ask for a photo of the back of the credit card used in the transaction

If you have any other tips or feedback we'd love to hear from you: hello@misfitdiamonds.com