A Story On The Radio About Credit Card Fraud
I heard a piece on the radio a few months ago. It had to do with credit card fraud. It was astounding to say the least.
Essentially there is a huge market on the web of credit card fraudsters (“organized crime 2.0”). They're not exactly organized. According to the radio piece, there are fraudsters that have never even met each other, but they work in unison somehow.
They hack the banks and credit card companies and they steal credit card numbers. These so called “black hat hackers” buy and sell these credit card numbers in bulk. You can basically buy credit card numbers online in stacks of 100 for something in the order of $20 to $40 with credit limits ranging from $500 to $500,000.
I was blown away to say the least.
Soon as I got to the store that I own and manage, I called my merchant account services rep up to ask about credit card fraud and how I can get some added protection on my small business merchant account. I told her that I basically cannot afford to be left on the hook for illegal credit card numbers that run through my store.
I assured her that I was doing and am doing everything that I possibly can do in order to thwart credit card fraud on my end but asserted that I can’t possibly stop all fraud from occurring. I cited the radio story that I’d just heard.
She said that she’d have to run a credit check on my merchant account to see if I’d qualify, but if I did, I could get protection within a certain range on my merchant account. It would basically work like an insurance policy wherein I would pay the regular fee on a regular basis in exchange for protection in case anything should happen to my merchant account. I immediately told her to sign me up.
