Fraud prevention 01/11/2008

Sharon Gal Franco

Fraud prevention, in its many layers and forms, is one of the most important services that an Internet Payment Service Provider (IPSP) can provide for today’s gaming merchant. SafeCharge Int. offers direct merchant accounts, with a fraud prevention system that was specifically created for the gaming industry. SafeCharge’s solutions are customised to each client’s individual business model, and the fraud prevention service follows the same tailor-made pattern. 

As much as online merchants require the most advanced fraud prevention, they don’t want to lose out on valid sales due to the ‘over-scrubbing’ of many automated fraud systems. This point is exactly what differentiates between inaccurate and accurate fraud prevention. Accurate fraud prevention leads to high sales conversion, and IPSP SafeCharge International specialises specifically in this field. 

SafeCharge has always prided itself in the work of their risk analysts, who through their expertise and human judgment have made accurate fraud prevention possible. Now, with the aid of even newer and upgraded technology, SafeCharge risk analysts can achieve even greater and more precise results with the automatic reviewing and flagging system, based on fraud checks for pre-defined, customised patterns. The flagging is done online, and it leads to the offline checks on a case-by-case basis by the experts of the risk team. This goes against the traditional approach of merely blocking suspicious transactions through an automated system, and allows the risk managers to communicate with the merchant online about the particular suspicious transaction. Therefore, the decision to block or approve a suspicious transaction is as educated as possible. 

Additionally, SafeCharge offers special features which prevent fraud even further, such as 3D Secure. 3D Secure has become a necessity for maximising sales potential, as Maestro UK (which has officially replaced Switch as the national payment system in Britain) has made it a mandatory requirement. Thus, if a merchant does not have 3D Secure, he will lose out on all Maestro UK sales. 3D Secure serves as an additional authenticator, as the issuer bank verifies the cardholder with a password. Chargeback liability is no longer held by the merchant, because if the cardholder later denies the transaction, it is a matter for the issuer bank and the cardholder to resolve without involving the merchant. This liability shift has made 3D Secure a very popular feature for gaming merchants, and it is imperative that the PSP provides it. 

A no hassle verification process 

SafeCharge’s Card Storage is essential in preventing the kind of fraud that has to do with database theft. For a merchant, the customer database is the core of their business, the risk of having it hacked into and stolen by a fraudster, or scheming competitor, is one that a merchant cannot afford. SafeCharge merchants who utilise this feature are relieved of the hassling PCI certification process, as they can rely on SafeCharge’s annually renewed PCI certification, and of the worry of storing card data on their own. It also saves the merchant time and energy, as card data transactions only need to be sent upon the first transaction made by a particular card. Upon receipt, SafeCharge will send a token (a string of characters which will be returned with the transaction response) back to the merchant. The next time, instead of passing the card number again, the merchant can specify the token which stands for that particular card. 

These features and services, along with many others, such as the Dynamic Descriptor, callback alerts for retrievals and chargebacks, representment procedures to the bank, are what separate SafeCharge from the processors who simply move money from one side to the other. Along with the fraud prevention features are the features that merely protect the merchant’s account, such as the multi-banking opportunities worldwide in different jurisdictions. Additionally, there are the features that simply give the merchants added values to their customers, such as OCT payouts for Visa and MasterCard, VIP player identification, localisation with multi-currency processing capabilities (with identical settlement) and multi-language payment page. As SafeCharge developers and Risk Analysts constantly stay one step ahead of the game, merchants can be assured that they are receiving the maximum that the industry has to offer – and their profits will thrive as a result of this.

- Sharon Gal Franco is sales and marketing manager at Safecharge

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Posted: 01/11/2008