Category Archives: online payments

online payments for credit card processing and echecks

Credit Card Testing Explosion Hurts Merchants Profits

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If you accept payments online, have you hardened security to protect from card testing? Card testing is a big criminal business. They’re sophisticated and use hardware and software that can send thousands of stolen credit card data in less than an hour to your payment portal or ecommerce shopping cart before you even know you’ve been hit.

Brute-force authorization attacks can be very expensive for merchants. For every attempted authorization, merchants pay a payment gateway fee, plus a fee to the merchant services processor (acquirer).

Example:

  • $.30 per transaction gateway
  • $.10 per transaction processor
  • 20,000 cards tested @$.40= $8,000

There’s no getting back the $8,000. The gateway and processor passed the data you gave them. In the event orders are approved, there’s the additional cost of lost product shipped and the associated chargeback fee. Then there’s the cost of damaged brand reputation from cardholders who voice on social media, where it lives on forever, how their card was used unauthorized.

How can merchants protect online payments from card testers?  Google reCAPTCHA is a free service that protects your website from spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA can prevent bots from submitting a transaction that you’ll pay for. For most shopping carts, it’s the payment gateway that must support reCAPTCHA. If the integration does not include reCAPTCHA or similar service, merchants might want to review if their gateway is compliant with current rules acceptance in general.

Protecting against both bots and fraudulent transactions is tricky.

Fifteen percent of all cardholders have had at least one transaction unnecessarily declined in the previous 12 months, according to a 2015 study by Javelin.

Unnecessary declines are also called False Positives. Cardholder authentication is a layer of security to protect against fraudulent purchasing, increasing approvals and reducing False Positives. 3-D Secure is a global XML protocol for Cardholder Authentication; The card brands each has their own name- Verified by Visa, Amex Safekey, MasterCard SecureCode. Benefits of 3-D Secure include automation, shifting liability to card issuers without manual review of orders, increased approvals, and sometimes reduced Visa and MasterCard interchange fees.

Which payment gateways support recaptcha and Cardholder authentication?

reCAPTCHA is easy to implement, just check with your payment gateway provider or web developer. 3-D Secure is quick, easy and requires a few steps:

  • Confirm your payment gateway is 3-D Secure certified for your credit card processor (merchant services provider or acquirer). Ask which are certified: Verified by Visa, Amex Safekey, MasterCard SecureCode. Some have certifications, some don’t.
  • If there’s an application such as a shopping cart or e-invoicing, confirm the payment gateway integration will support 3-D Secure.
  • Contact your acquirer and ask them to register your merchant account for 3-D Secure. Some can, some can’t. It’s usually done in a day.
  • Turn on 3-D Secure in the payment gateway.

FAQ

Is there a cost for reCAPTCHA? No, it’s free from Google. If your payment gateway supports reCAPTCHA, it may just need to be activated on your account, no programming needed. Contact your payment gateway support or check their FAQ to find out.

Is there a cost to register for 3-D Secure? That’s up to the individual company doing the registration. Costs start at $0.

Is there an ongoing cost to use 3-D Secure? Yes, and it’s up to the individual company offering the service. Costs typically range from $.075 to $.30 per attempted authorization.

If hit by a card tester, can I negotiate to reduce fees? It’s unlikely because services were delivered as per your agreements.

Christine Speedy, authorized CenPOS reseller, provides universal payment processing solutions, including reCAPTCHA and 3-D Secure cardholder authentication, to maximize merchant profits and mitigate risk across multiple sales channels. Contact Christine at 954-942-0483. 

VISA FRAUD DISPUTE RULES CHANGES IMPACT CARD NOT PRESENT

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April 5, 2017—This alert contains critical information regarding new and revised Visa card acceptance rules effective now and coming in the future for merchants. Business to business companies may be at higher risk of associated chargeback losses or declines due to the average size of order. Effective April 22, 2017, Revisions have been made to split the “Other Fraud” Dispute condition under Enhanced Dispute Resolution into separate conditions for Card-Present and Card-Absent Transactions, and to incorporate changes to the payment flow related to Disputes.

Christine’s Analysis: Merchants need to support both EMV chip for Card-Present and Verified by Visa for card not present. Verified by Visa is their brand for 3-D Secure, a global security protocol for cardholder authentication across all card brands. For example, a  cardholder might be asked to enter a PIN number or answer some other type of authentication question. Cardholder authentication for Card-Absent Transactions shifts liability for “it wasn’t me” disputes to the issuer. This card-absent cardholder authentication process requires cardholders self-initiate payments, eliminating collecting card numbers via phone or paper credit card authorization forms. Merchants are rewarded for using cardholder authentication with reduced interchange rates and increased approvals.

Christine’s TIP: Per Visa rule 5.4.2.5, a US merchant or its agent must not Request the Card Verification Value 2 data on any paper Order Form. Replace paper forms with digital, PCI Compliant forms and online payment solutions with cardholder authentication ASAP.

Online payment solutions include a hosted pay page like the one shown below.

hosted paypage online payments

A hosted pay page empowers customers to make secure payments online using a 3rd party provider (Payment Gateway also known as a Payment Facilitator.)

Other solutions include pushing out payment requests, such as via a text or email. electronic invoice presentment and payment eippWith new and revised rules impacting the entire payment ecosystem including issuer, acquirer, gateway, merchant, and potentially other software like ERP’s and ecommerce shopping carts, merchants should verify all parts their payment ecosystem supports them. Desktop terminals are not capable of supporting all the rules for card absent needs; a cloud-based payment gateway is required whether non-integrated, or integrated ecommerce shopping cart, ERP or other software.

Does your online payment solution support Verified by Visa, or do you need a solution? Contact Christine Speedy at 954-942-0483 for a fast and easy solution, compatible with your existing credit card processor.

Credit Card Authorization Form and PCI Compliance Update

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A Credit Card Authorization Form enables a business to charge a credit card one-time or for recurring purchases. Is your form PCI Compliant with 2016 standards? Edited from my original contribution to Credit Today, learn the pitfalls and solutions to traditional paper authorization forms.

Do your business practices meet current PCI Compliance standards?

  1. Is it OK to store the form in a locked drawer?
  2. Is it OK to store the form in the cloud if it’s encrypted?
  3. Is it OK to receive them via email?
  4. Is it possible to qualify for the lowest processing rates using them?
  5. Is it OK to key enter each transaction for cards on file?credit card authorization form pci compliant

Credit Card Authorization Forms and PCI Compliance Rules

  • Per PCI 3.2, Neither Primary Account Number (PAN) nor Card Verification Code (CVV) can be stored on paper after authorization.
  • Per PCI 3.4, must render PAN unreadable anywhere stored (including on portable digital media, backup media, and in logs) using one of four cited approaches.
  • No. Per PCI 2 Never send unprotected PANs by end-user messaging technologies (for example, e-mail, instant messaging, SMS, chat, etc.).
  • No. Most cards, except regulated debit, can qualify for multiple rates depending on how the transaction is submitted. For example, MasterCard World card rates:
Rate Name Rate Qualified Rate Reason
Standard 2.95% + $.10 Not all criteria met for another rate.
Merit I 2.05% + $.10 Key-entered or ecommerce and valid authorization + other criteria met.
Full UCAF 1.87% = $.10 Ecommerce; Cardholder authentication and other criteria met.

To qualify for UCAF, the customer must initiate payment.

Ecommerce includes online paypage and other electronic payment channels the customer initiates.

  • No. If a customer authorizes to store a card, then after the initial transaction, all subsequent transactions must be sent with the correct transaction type: recurring or repeat sale.

Alternative methods to process Card Not Present orders:

Hosted pay page. The merchant directs customers to web page to pay any invoice online. Acceptable implementation methods have changed in the last year or two for PCI Compliance. For maximum reduced PCI burden, send customers directly to the 3rd party payment gateway web URL. The gateway may or may not be the same as your processor. NOTE: If hosting on your own web site with an embedded payment (iframe) object, PCI requirements have changed; any old forms should be updated.

Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment. (EBPP or EIPP) This is basically a proactive version of the above. As a standalone solution, the merchant user logs in to a gateway web portal, and sends a payment request via text or email which the customer clicks and pays. Integrated to billing software, it sends the actual invoice, and may require customer to login to make the payment.

All the major payment gateways include a Virtual terminal, hosted pay page, and shopping cart checkout capability, tokenization to store card data for future orders. Some, including CenPOS also offer EBPP.

If you accept cards over the phone, gateways with a virtual encrypted keyboard can reduce PCI scope since card data never touches computers or networks.

Christine Speedy, CenPOS reseller, maximizes profits, efficiency, and security with payment processing solutions including EIPP, collections automation, and online payments. She can be reached at 954-942-0483 or cspeedy AT 3dmerchant.com.

 

 

Online Payment Form Security Alert

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Is your online payment form out of date and a security risk? Securing online payment forms requires an annual review at a minimum. Just because a hosted paypage form still works, doesn’t mean it’s secure or PCI Compliant.

PCI Compliance requirements have steadily tightened since 2014 for pay pages and all ecommerce transactions.

Hosted paypage options:

  1. Merchant hosts the form and collects payment on their web site. Beginning with PCI 3.0, significant additional PCI burden applies. Highest risk.
  2. 3rd party payment gateway hosted pay page; Provide a link directly to customers to pay. The form is served by and submitted by the payment gateway. It significantly reduces the potential for malicious activity that could compromise cardholder data. Lowest risk.
  3. An iframe hosted paypage has the appearance of residing on the merchant web site, but the payment data is captured by the 3rd party directly on their web host. The implementation method using iframes for payments has changed over the years to meet current PCI Compliance requirements, including to combat malicious javascript and Cross-Site Scripting threats.

“If your iframe hosted paypage hasn’t been updated in the last year or so it’s likely not PCI Compliant,” Christine Speedy, Card Not Present Expert.

A payment gateway is a secure transaction engine that facilitates the transfer of sensitive information to the processor, and is required for all online payment forms. Some gateways provide online payment forms at no additional charge. Vendor selection has a significant impact on risk mitigation, payment processing fees, efficiency, and PCI Compliance burden.

A payment gateway can be proprietary to a specific processor, or agnostic and compatible with multiple processors. While one provider for both services may seem to be the best choice, there are significant reasons the opposite may also be true, including risk mitigation. Bots present a significant risk of exploitation of online payment forms and may result in profit loss if additional steps are not implemented to mitigate risk of ‘card testing’, where criminals use online forms to submit fake transactions to determine if cards are good or bad. Every attempted transaction has an associated cost with it, and adding in chargeback fees from resulting  disputes, the result could be tens of thousands in dollars in fees in a matter of hours.

If you don’t want to be the next law firm, CPA firm, hotel or distributor data breach headline, consult with a payments expert that understands the financial and risk ramifications of one payment gateway choice and implementation method over another vs ecommerce consultants or bankers that may have limited in-depth expertise to maximize your profits and mitigate risk exposure.

TIP FOR NON-TECHS: Does your online payment form look good on smart phones and other mobile devices? If not, there’s a pretty good chance your online payment page needs an update and is not PCI Compliant.

RESOURCES:

  • PCI – Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards
  • https://www.us-cert.gov/publications/securing-your-web-browser
  • http://pcisecuritystandards.org

For PCI compliant solutions to collect online payments from your customers, contact Christine Speedy today. Get paid via your preferred methods, including ACH, credit card, wire and Paypal, while increasing security and convenience.

Stopping Online Credit Card Testers

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Online credit card testing by fraudsters can dramatically drive up payment gateway fees.  Historically, card not present financial fraud grows exponentially in countries after implementing EMV chip card processing, as thieves seek the weakest link for fake credit card purchases. Thieves use software to rapidly send cardholder data to payment web sites to verify if stolen cards are good, card testing, and since merchants pay a per transaction fee, regardless of approval, the financial impact can be devastating.

Companies with online pay pages are at increased risk. Since October 2015, online fraud attacks were up 11% 2015 Q4 Vs Q3, and up 215 percent from 2015 Q1. 83% of attacks involved botnets. Source: The Global Fraud Attack Index™, a PYMNTS/Forter collaboration. The preferred web pay pages have no login required, and provide detailed decline response reasons. I’m often asked by others in the industry to provide the latter, and for the same reason as for retail, it’s better than no one knows the reason for the decline. If you inform a criminal the expiration date is no good, they just need to figure out the right one.

PREVENTING ONLINE CARD TESTING

A layered approach is required to stop card testers since no single solution will stop fraudsters. Generally, the harder you make it, the more likely they will seek a path of less resistance.

  • Block known fraudulent incoming IP addresses. The bad guys also use hostile proxy servers, with dynamically changing IP addresses every authorization attempt, but this is still a first step everyone should employ.

For additional assistance, please contact us. I won’t make it easier for criminals by identifying all the tools here in the blog!