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Credit and debit cards have brought about a revolution in the industry. Their use has increased to a large extent due to the ease it provides. The trend of making the payments by means of cash or check is no longer in. This has paved way for the business entrepreneurs to go in for a merchant account that enables them to accept payments through the most convenient form that is credit card. It also helps them gain a competitive edge over others.

The business entrepreneurs can now boost their sales by providing total flexibility to their customers. This is possible only if they maintain one or more merchant accounts. Merchant account offers them plethora of benefits. It serves as the gateway to earn profits. You can better cater to the needs of your customers by signing for a merchant account. The best part is that you can carry out the credit card processing transaction from anywhere at any point of time. There is lot more that the merchant account offers to its users.

The merchant account enables the customers to make the payments by their preferred mode. Many a times, it happens that the shoppers go about strolling in the markets without carrying much cash. By chance, they land up in a shop and like a few items but do not possess amount with which they can buy the products on the spot. It is here that the credit card comes to play a vital role. The businesses that have a merchant account succeed in converting the interest of the visitors into sales.

There is a huge importance of merchant account for your business. It helps to fasten the check out procedure. It provides protection from potential losses that are caused due to the bad checks. A large part of population finds it cumbersome to carry a grand sum of money when they go out of their house. It is like a well known fact that people tend to spend more using plastic money rather than hard cash. The initial cost of signing for a merchant account, at times, pinches the businessmen. However, at a later stage, they realize that the cost of loss in the profit level and volume of sales is much more than what they had to incur in the beginning.

If you want to give an impetus to your business and augment your sales, apply for a merchant account today. To get more information on merchant accounts, merchant services and credit card processing, you can visit credit card blog.

Where money is being generated there are thieves. Money and goods draw unscrupulous people like bees to honey. And the popular marketplace for thieves today is the World Wide Web. Cyber thieves can carry on their robbery without being policed or leaving traces of their activities. So, it is important for ecommerce websites to protect their merchant accounts from frauds and stay one-step ahead of cyber fraudsters. Its not just money but goods that are stolen from the cyber marketplace.

The statistics regarding credit card fraud and chargeback fees to merchants is frightening. According to research the estimated online fraud in 2007 in the US alone is projected ar 3.2 billion USD. Online fraud has been on the rise, in 2003 it was 2.3 billion USD; 2005 it was 2.7 billion USD and in 2006 it reached 3.0 billion USD.

It is important for cyber business to stay one step ahead of criminals to secure their online payment systems optimally:

1. It is important to ensure that you ask the gateway provider about screening features and the functions of each. Screening features must precede credit card payment processing. Many payment gateways have in place an address verification system, AVS. This checks the address given on the billing details with the address in the credit card issuer’s records. Use the AVS system as an indicator of internet fraud.

2. Always use the CVV2 as an indicator the CVV2 is the three digit identifying number cheap car go located on the back of a credit card. Although this check helps minimize fraud some thieves even use the correct CVV2 number while thieving.

3. Use a quick verification process that goes a little beyond asking for the customer’s name, credit card number, and CCV2. Devise simple questions that will help you check the identity of the customer. Check e-mail account details to verify whether the customer is genuine. Frauds hardly ever use their own email addresses.

4. Check whether the shipping address and billing address are the same. And request for a contact number if a customer hesitates then refuse to process the order. Fraudsters hardly ever give their own phone numbers and more often than not request for goods to be shipped to addresses other than the credit card billing addresses.

5. Install traffic tracking software on your website. This creates demographic data that will pinpoint origins of orders. For this method to be effective use a “time stamp” on each submitted order. If a order originates from Siberia with a billing address in London then make all efforts to verify he order stringently.

When in doubt always make enquires with the bank or credit card company and do not ship the order unless you confirm it is genuine. Suspect large orders that request express delivery. Trust is important in any business so it is important for you to also rely on your instincts, if any order seems “odd” take the time to make thorough checks. Many e-commerce merchants have a system in place that verifies customers by calling the telephone number of the person placing the order.

Be a savvy e-commerce merchant and keep up-to-date with e-commerce security developments and innovations. Read articles and reviews on the World Wide Web with regularity.