PayMongo continues to join the global effort to minimize the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness and education. For the second year, PayMongo celebrates International Fraud Awareness Week by sharing tips and tricks to help our merchants spot and combat fraud.
There are many types of fraud indicators, some of which are easier to spot. Having an understanding of the various ways that fraudsters use false information will help you spot and protect yourself against them.
Here are a few common fraud indicators:
⚠️ Reminder:
These are just guidelines for checking, and are not sure indicators of fraud!
1. False Contact Information
The easiest fraud indicator that you can spot can be a fake phone number or email address.
Most people pick an email address that is consistent with their name or details. An email address that has a large string of numbers before the domain, random letters and/or suspicious domain should be treated with caution. (Example: [email protected])
Making sure that the provided contact number is valid is important as well. If the provided details are invalid, it would be difficult to get in touch with the customer should an issue with their order come up.
2. Inconsistencies with customer details
Repeat customers are normal. However, if you find yourself receiving orders from the same individual (failed or successful), it may be best to verify these transactions. Here are some situations you need to look out for:
Same card, but different shipping addresses
Same shipping address, but different cards/payment methods
Using the same e-mail address but different names for other payments
Cross-check the credit card's country of origin, shipping address, and billing address.
While differences in addresses by itself does not indicate fraud, it can serve as a warning sign for you to be vigilant.
3. High-ticket size transactions
If your transactions are significantly higher than average, or if you find a customer purchasing a large number of your big-ticket items, exercise caution. Verify the customer's identity before you ship out the products!
When in doubt, you can send an email to [email protected] so we can check on your concern!
4. Flagged/Failed Transactions
PayMongo uses a sophisticated risk engine to detect possible fraudulent transactions, and if a transaction triggers the security measures that our team has set in place, the transaction won't push through. You'll see a banner underneath the "Payment details" stating why this transaction was rejected.
When you see transactions like these and feel that the transaction may be suspicious, you can check if you have transactions from the same customer by searching their details in the search bar!
Trust your Instincts!
As a merchant, you've come across many types of customers and orders. If you think an order you received doesn't feel right, don't hesitate to request for additional information from your customer, call to verify the purchase, or even refund the transaction!
Our goal is to help your business maximize growth and minimize the risk. While PayMongo uses different methods and ways to protect you and your business from fraud (e.g. leveraging machine learning and internal risk controls) we still encourage our merchants to know the best practices on how to detect and eliminate fraud using the available data points in the PayMongo dashboard.
Our team is still working on adding more data points in the dashboard to further help you know, understand, and differentiate your good customers from the bad ones. So stay tuned!