Interesting story about credit card fraud

Originally Posted by Xaccers

So they send you a bill requesting the money back?

Nope, they send you a letter saying that the card holder has queried the transaction and that you should send the card slip and any supporting documentation to prove it's a genuine sale.

They then take that and look at it and decide if it's valid or not and if they decide not, they will debit your merchant account with the value of the transaction.

Fortunately I've never had an actual chargeback enforced, although I did lose out on a transaction which was declined after I'd taken a manual payment (not electronic) which was subsequently rejected, luckily it wasn't for a large amount.
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Originally Posted by Xaccers

Ah, I gues the thinking behind that is it is up to the retailer to ensure that the signature matches etc

Yes, the retailer should do that, and check the hologram and that the signature strip hasn't been tampered with etc etc, but when it comes down to it, it's stil the retailer that's going to get stiffed for the money.
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Originally Posted by bmxbandit

very, very few people even bother to look at stuff i sign

check this out...almost unbelievable the lengths he had to go to!

Well all I can say is that he would *NOT* have got away with that if he was buying stuff off me!

It's my business, so *I* lose money if someone rips me off, so I make damn sure I do the checks to avoid it happening!
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Originally Posted by punky

An authorisation number will gaurantee that the money will go into your account, i.e. that it is cleared funds, but it doesn't mean it will stay in there.

Actually it's not "cleared funds", it simply means they've got no reason to *not* give it to you at the moment!

Even with cheques, it turns out that "cleared funds" is a myth and the banks can claw the money back off you up to six *months* later!