Blog » Protect your business from online fraud pt. 1

Protect your business from online fraud pt. 1

As a digital merchant, protecting your online store from fraud is of the utmost importance. There are a number of fraudsters out there just dying to hoodwink you out of your hard-earned cash, and due to the “arms length” at which transactions take place, there is little to no recourse an online merchant has if fraud strikes.

Luckily you’ve got PayFast on your side and in this series of two posts, we’ll show you ways to limit the risk of fraud on your account:

1. Credit Card Country Restrictions

Limit the countries from which you are willing to accept payments funded by credit cards, to your target market. For example, if your target market is South Africa, limit the countries from where credit card payments can be made to South Africa and neighbouring countries. This is an extremely effective method of preventing fraud as the majority of cards used fraudulently originate from outside South Africa.

Integration - Allowed Countries

 

To do this, log into you PayFast account, go to integration and edit the countries from which credit cards will be accepted.

 

2. 3D Secure

If you are selling “high risk” products, such as iPods or computers, lower the 3D Secure amount. By default, 3D secure is implemented when a transaction is over R1,000. By lowering this to, for example, R250, most transactions will go through the 3D Secure process, reducing the likelihood of fraud, while not negatively impacting low value transactions.

Integration - Lower credit card limit

3D Secure (Three Domain Secure) can be thought of as an online version of “Chip and Pin” technology, where the cardholder has a personalised PIN that is registered with their card for online purchases. This is entered during the checkout process and confirms that it is indeed the cardholder performing the transaction.

 

3.  Instant EFT

Promote Instant EFT as a preferred payment method instead of credit cards. PayFast’s Instant EFT payment method does not carry any of the risks that are associated with credit card payments and is not subject to chargeback while still offering the same experience in terms of immediacy of payment.

PayFast Instant EFTInstant EFT allows your buyers to pay via EFT from one of the 4 major retail banks, but have the payment clear instantly. Unlike credit card payments, the payment is guaranteed and not subject to chargeback or fraud.