Fraud

[nigelb]

Do you find you have more fraud attacks for a particular country or region?

Not trying to be racist or point fingers. Just trying to get a feel of what others are experiencing.

 

[Rado_Ch]

Indeed and I think many colleagues will share similar experience. Of course, this is not a matter of being racially insensitive or prejudiced again a country/region, its just pure statistics.

In the line of work I've viewed far too many fraudsters from Vietnam for example. Nigerians and South Africans are not far behind and Indonesia+Russia complete my Top5.

Still, I'm strongly against forbidding a certain country access of service, due to the high-risk state (except embargoed countries ofc). Most verification checkers like MaxMind do take this in mind, but this is just to serve as a flag that a certain customer might need special monitoring. Once a detailed verification is made, contacting the customer is very useful. You can ask simple questions like "What do you plan to do with your website?" or "Do you have any specific email requirements?" - you would be surprised at how many frauds fall easily in this trap, either unintentionally, or just because they don't know better :rolleyes2 If needed - ask for an ID verification, if the person is truthful they will understand and even approve of the further security checks, as a sign that the host is taking solid measurements about customer protection.

Give much trust to your clients...but not too much or risk becoming the class dummy :rolleyes2

 

[NW-Dan]

We actually don't get very many fraud attempts. From what I've found from being involved with hosting companies before branching out and starting my own is that if you sell anything cheap or provide a free trial you will get a good amount of fraud.

At NodeWest we don't have "cheap" hosting. Our services run from 5 dollars and up. We also state on all advertisements that we verify accounts by ID or other means. This has cut down on fraud a lot since we started doing this. The attempts don't even come in.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

We actually don't get very many fraud attempts. From what I've found from being involved with hosting companies before branching out and starting my own is that if you sell anything cheap or provide a free trial you will get a good amount of fraud.

At NodeWest we don't have "cheap" hosting. Our services run from 5 dollars and up. We also state on all advertisements that we verify accounts by ID or other means. This has cut down on fraud a lot since we started doing this. The attempts don't even come in.

We have a similar pricing model though are heavy on the promotions, (thankfully) the majority of our orders are legit though we do get some fraudulent orders. Really it is just the nature of doing business online, as long as proper policies and procedures are in place and you a half decent level of fraud protection in place you should be fine.

 

[4D Hosting]

I always check for:
• A name that has nonsense details, e.g. Mr A Contact
• A telephone number that doesn’t exist e.g. 0000 123456
• An incomplete billing address
• A shopper who refuses to confirm their card and billing address details
• A delivery address that's not the same as the billing address for first transactions
• A temporary address such as a hotel or boarding house
• Deliveries to airports, or other unlikely addresses such as industrial estates if it's not a B2B transaction.
You can also use websites like 192.com and UKPhoneInfo.com to verify customers’ details manually.

You can also use an automated service such as Datacash Fraud and Risk , but you still need to carry out the manual checks above on out of the ordinary or high-value transactions to identify high risk orders and avoid rejecting legitimate payments (e.g. because of a shopper’s typing mistake,).

Hope that helps!

 

[nigelb]

I was interested in not so much how you prevent fraud more a general question was there a proliferation of fraud from certain regions.

 

[247-host]

Phone verification by calling or getting a scanned copy of ID/payment is always a good preventative method for flagged orders.

 

[NW-Dan]

We have a similar pricing model though are heavy on the promotions, (thankfully) the majority of our orders are legit though we do get some fraudulent orders. Really it is just the nature of doing business online, as long as proper policies and procedures are in place and you a half decent level of fraud protection in place you should be fine.

We are very strict with our accounts. and I mean VERY. We look at a lot of variables before approving an account. We like to protect our customers and not risk their safety just to make money.

Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[paullopez]

Phone verification by calling or getting a scanned copy of ID/payment is always a good preventative method for flagged orders.

The same practice we follow in our company with MaxMind (IP Geolocation and Online Fraud Prevention). I guess you are also using it or a similar kind fraud detection system.

 

[nigelb]

So all I can conclude is, apart from Rado_Ch, no one knows their hi-risk areas, or no one cares.

 

[LampNetworks]

So all I can conclude is, apart from Rado_Ch, no one knows their hi-risk areas, or no one cares.

Our highest fraud detection rates are from South East Asia followed by east European countries.

 

[nigelb]

Our highest fraud detection rates are from South East Asia followed by east European countries.

Thank you Eastern Europe and southern Europe but not a lot just our main areas.

 

[IkY0294]

Normally with daily orders we don't see to much fraud. Once in a while we'll see big orders come it and no matter what we do our own fraud check such as seeing client ID / Card and Calling them to confirm order.

All hosts should always look out for fraud and make sure that they are dealing with a true loyal customer.

 

[shango]

All our fraud attempts are with US credit cards.
Name, adress and number seem legit, but when we call for confirmation there is usually no such person at that number.

 

[visiba]

For us, most fraud attempts come from Southwest Asia, Africa and some European countries like Netherlands and Romania.

 

[Jump systems]

There are certain countries which record higher than average levels of fraud and these countries are in the public domain. As an online business, its upto the individual businesses to decide how to handle orders from these countries without alienating legit orders

 

[nigelb]

its upto the individual businesses to decide how to handle orders from these countries without alienating legit orders

Well that's the trick

 

[RH-Calvin]

Well I think that frauds do not intend to any particular country or region. Frauds can be anywhere from around the World. Credit cards are the most common way to frauds.

 

[vegas]

In webhosting you are not free of risk just considering that,anybody of the best country can hack all of your clients accounts by sudo ur server or any other techniques

 

[[HRD]-Gareth]

Fraud is a risk in any business, but especially the hosting industry.

If you use a service like MaxMind, it can help to block a number of them, but you should not rely on it as the only tool in your arsenal.

You can do various checks yourself, like doing a search on the domain/email address history etc