There is a great article on online fraud on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning. Some interesting highlights:
- While fraud occurs in 0.1% of traditional transactions, online fraud is 2.1%
- VISA and MasterCard earn $500 million a year from chargeback fees.
- Credit card issuers and banks do NOT pursue fraud in online cases. In fact, they require that the merchant absorb the loss plus they are penalized with fees.
- Website Billing was slapped with over $1 million in fees by VISa in 2001. WSB has a lawsuit pending against VISA.
- In face to face transactions, the issuing bank usually takes on the responsibility of the loss. There is no set policy with online transactions.
There are plenty of more educational goodies. If online merchants (especially adult internet) demand a better situation, it is up to us to fix the problem. We need our own bank and processing center that hunts down fraud and happy chargebacks. Otherwise, we will be posting away insulting each and every processor in endless threads of why we haven't gotten our checks.