Online Store : Avoiding Fraud In Online Selling

Dealing With Fraudulence

Talking about fraud and scams in online business is like speaking of never ending story of an undefeatable enemy. It is mortal, infecting, and evolve. Everyday we’ll see a new way of fraud is found, and almost no effective way to avoid it.

The term “Internet fraud” generally refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses one or more online services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme.

- Wikipedia -

Security is a necessary part of every online store. Even though it is hard, there are some things that we can do to avoid fraud.

Be Honest

As a seller, you can reduce the possibility of disputes, claims, charge backs, and fraud by being honest to your customers. Buyers don’t like surprises. Give a detailed description of your item and include photos. Pictures are especially important when selling in countries where buyers may not be as fluent with the language in which the seller wrote the listing. Also clearly state your return policy in a place where buyers can find it.

Respond promptly to inquiries.

Show buyers that you are listening by promptly and courteously responding to all questions.

Beware of unusual requests.

Abnormal requests can be a sign of suspicious activity. A few examples include:

• Rush shipments at any cost.
• Partial payments from multiple PayPal accounts.
• Payments not received in full.

Be extra cautious with high-priced items.

It’s fairly common for shipping addresses to differ from billing addresses. However, be extra cautious when sending high-priced items, especially if payment is received from one country and sent to another.

Know the buyer.

• Do they have a confirmed address?
• For e-commerce sites with feedback systems, what is the buyer’s score?
• Do you have any questions? Get answers by emailing or calling the buyer.

Track packages.

Packages should be sent with tracking numbers. Once you get a tracking number from the shipping service, promptly send it to the buyer. As an extra precaution, you should consider adding delivery confirmation. Finally, make sure to keep proof that the package was received by the buyer.

Insure packages.

When sending goods, opt for postal insurance to protect yourself in the event that a shipment is lost or the buyer claims it was never delivered.

Keep buyers up-to-date about delivery.

Set expectations up front. Once payment is received, give buyers an estimated delivery time. Keep in mind, it’s better to overestimate delivery time than have a package show up late. If a package is not sent in time, tell your buyer about it.

Work with third-party service

Managing payment is a difficult task yet to know any supicious activity. Easiest way to do this is order a secure online payment service or using Paypal Merchant service. Some secure online payment service are :

• http://home.plimus.com/ecommerce/sellers/plimus-right-choice
• http://www.x-cart.com/antifraud_service.html
• http://www.avangate.com/ecommerce-services/features-security.php

Using Paypal Merchant service is a perfect way out of this problem. Paypal himself is armored with data encryption, multiple verification methods, and anti fraud specialists. Paypal also supports Address Verification Service that helps you to check if the address of your customer candidate is valid. Go here for more information for this service.

Avoiding fraud and scam  is a hard work, but getting customers trust is harder, so always do a secure transaction that will benefit both seller and customers. Be safe!