Fraud Screening Systems
Issue 73, August 15, 2003

Dear friends,

With 2% to 5% of Internet transactions fraudulent, merchants are taking steps to protect themselves. In this issue I offer two articles:

• Understanding Fraud Screening Systems for Merchants
• Fraud Screening Systems Offered by Payment Gateways

I hope you'll find these articles helpful in helping you reduce your level of undetected fraudulent transactions.

I've decided to offer an elementary to intermediate Web Seminar entitled, "How to Sell Products and Services on the Internet." It will consist of five approximately one-hour sessions, Monday through Friday at 9 am Pacific Time, October 6 to 10. Some of you are old hands at e-commerce, but others are overwhelmed and need someone to talk you through the processes involved. I hope you'll join me in October. http://www.wilsonweb.com/webinar/sell_online/?c1=wct73&source=sell

God bless you,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Understanding Fraud Screening Systems for Merchants

The small to medium-size Internet merchant has three options to choose from to screen transactions for fraud: (1) simple AVS and CVV2, (2) rules-based screening, and (3) neural network fraud prediction scores. In this article I explain in some detail how each of these works and differs from the others. By the time you've finished the article, you'll be able to choose the right system to meet your needs. Read the Article

Fraud Screening Services offered by Payment Gateways Catering to Small to Medium Businesses

I have studied the fraud screening services offered by 40 payment gateways that typically serve small to medium size businesses (SMEs). In the accompanying chart, I indicate which fraud screening tools made available to the merchant by each of these payment gateways and provide links to their websites. See the Chart

New Ecommerce and Web Marketing Articles

Each month our team of link editors scours dozens of online periodicals and resources to find key information on e-commerce and Web marketing. With so much new literature available to you, how do you find what you need quickly and painlessly? Here's a selective and searchable database of article and resource links to help your research and keep you up-to-date in the field. (Links gathered in a given month are usually available during the second week of the following month.)