Phone Verification

[ProService]

Do you think automated phone verification of orders actually helps prevent fraud?

Thoughts? Poll posted above.

[ganesh.rao]

Not at all.

How would you call? The ph number given my the fraudsters? If you call, the fraud will answer the call and then what? You are going to fight an Intl' case? or even going to file a complaint?

The only way you can get the number of the real card owner is via Visa, MC, etc. For that you need to have exclusive partnership and good standing conditions with the respective company. I doubt companies like SoftLayer, LayeredTech, RackSpace to name a few have the power to get such information.

[Daki]

i agree with ganes.rao fraud allways give a cell phone number and receive all calls that you made

[dynamicnet]

Greetings:

While we don't use an automated phone verification, all orders involve phone verification where the order is not processed without verbal verification of the order.

Thank you.

[xvent]

Well if you get sued you have a phone number and every phone besides a pay phone has records tied to its number that and be acquired in the event of a lawsuit

[MattG]

Having phone verification will of course help prevent fraud but of course you will not always be able to filter everything out.

[cancer10]

I agree but It can partially protect you from fraud customers.

[nman14]

Phone verification is a great way to run off customers. If you have ever read the book "don't make me think" you will understand that the one extra step that customers have to take is a good reason for them to move on to the next company. Just use maxmind fraud protection and you will be fine. (make sure to disable proxy users)

[Tinkletinkle]

I agree, it helps, but what if a customer uses e-mail?

[EWH-Chris]

Phone verification helps, but so does IP/physical address locations. If the IP that ordered is in California, but the card holder address is in Florida, its most likely a fraudulent order, unless the person just moved and hasnt changed their card address yet, in which case you will still have a verified phone number for the order placer

[fcolor]

Well, I think it always helps. The phone should always match the billing address provided with the credit card. Then how do you expect the fraudster to pick it?!
It is useful and prevents fraud. And of course if no one answer the call you can always send email request for scanned credit card or just cancel the order.
Fraud is bad and we need to be careful and stop it!

Good Luck!

[inogenius]

Fraud verification of course isn't going to filter out everything. However, one thing it will add to your security is if someone files a malicious chargeback you can reply back with "look, they accepted the charge when our fraud verification team called their home number."

[northstormnet]

This does help some, but this does not help with chargebacks

[ProntoHost]

Cant beat manually checking orders, for high risk we use maxmind fraudcall which does check the phone number relative to IP and given address but some times they will still slip through...

[costlessnames]

We manually check any orders via phone when the IP/Location doesn't match. Catches most, if not all fraud orders. not one has got through for over a year so far.

Have considered using anautomated system however decided manual was best in this case.

[DeusExMachina]

Phone verification is a great way to run off customers.

This is very true.

I had a host account with a very reputable webhost, and had to switch services because they didn't offer the features I needed at the time (this was at the time of the huge price reduction and increased offerings about 4 years ago). A year later, I needed a simplier website and looked them up again for it, as they are very good at uptime and service.

They put in phone verification on all new accounts.

Was away from the phone many hours after the order (ordered around 4am), and it's then they called, about 15 minutes before their office closed for the day.

Because they couldn't contact me at their leisure, my account was denied.

All this despite being on record as a 2 year client with no fuss. The very clients webhosts w-a-n-t. :(

That's the downside of phone verification: run away even the good customers.

[GeekRack]

As others have stated manual checking does help keep the fraudulent charges at bay but you still have to worry about chargebacks etc even if those measures are in place..

[Comfy-Sales]

I would go for manually checking.
Automating this process some will slip through the cracks.

[Dougy]

I manually check them and use automated, double the protection.

Often works out great.

[empowering]

combo we use.. automated for most, with manual calls and checks for ones we think are suspect.

[Tagbridge]

We use maxmind for fraud checking and maually call the customer, it makes them feel more welcome then some automated voice calling them.

[XeHSean]

We manually check any orders via phone when the IP/Location doesn't match. Catches most, if not all fraud orders. not one has got through for over a year so far.

We do the same - I highly recommend that others look in to doing this. Phone verification + IP/Location comparison will stop almost every fraudulent order.

[MagniRack]

Yes, Once MagniRack Open's we will hopefully Use Maxmind! It's great there offering this great service!

[h0std3m0n]

Phone verification is a great way to run off customers. If you have ever read the book "don't make me think" you will understand that the one extra step that customers have to take is a good reason for them to move on to the next company. Just use maxmind fraud protection and you will be fine. (make sure to disable proxy users)

Never read that book but completely agree. Phone verification is a bit to excessive and will only scare some reluctant customers away. Ordering online should be secure, easy, and quick.

We use started using Maxmind with WHMCS to screen orders and some things set off alarm bells but things like free email address and phone verifying is too excessive IMO.

[iWF-Jacob]

I have had to do phone verification a few times... BAD IDEA!!! Phone verification almost always does not work. usually it forgets to tell you that you have to add a zero first, and sometimes it does not even call you! I have been put off by one host, because i had to wait for about 20 minutes to talk to an agent, just to verify my account!

[kompliit]

Phone verification can help increase fraud protection in combination with a fraud service like MaxMind.

However, the cost could potentially increase your markups and is not needed, when a fraud server like MaxMind does just fine.

[danushman]

Do you think automated phone verification of orders actually helps prevent fraud?

Thoughts? Poll posted above.


At my previous company, midPhase, we made extensive use of this. We used a service called Authentify to handle this and yes, it does have a fraud reducing effect.

However, that said, the practice was recently discontinued by midPhase' new owners. We were considering this also before selling the company. The reason is that fraudsters, just like hosting companies and credit card companies, have gotten smarter. They will not fraud a VOIP phone account and use a soft phone to verify the order. VOIP industry typically does not try to avoid fraud as much because teleco didn't have a big fraud problem.. that is all changing.

The best way is to do manual verification on all incoming orders over the phone, confirm the phoen number area code (or country code) match the address location the client gives you as well as the billing address on the credit card (payment gateways can access that information.)

Hope this helps,

Dan

[JKookServ]

Yes, phone verification can prevent fraud but not all.

[VisualVPS]

Even with phone verification I recall seeing that AOL at once point offered free phone numbers. Although you couldn't place any out going calls you could receive calls for free. From my experience most phone verification systems call you and just give you a PIN of some sort. With that being the case all a hacker/spammer needs to do is sign up for a free AOL account and get the phone number and just use that number during the registration process.

[JodoHost]

Do you think automated phone verification of orders actually helps prevent fraud?

Automated phone verification may not help preventing fraud orders. But; if one can speak and clarify some details on Phone while speaking to a human % of fraud orders can be managed.

However, phone verification is a Tricky Job :)

[nonparity]

it is a great tool to weed some out but still is not going to elimate fraud

[SyntheticChaos]

We manually check any orders via phone when the IP/Location doesn't match. Catches most, if not all fraud orders. not one has got through for over a year so far.

Have considered using anautomated system however decided manual was best in this case.
That is exactly what I have done before. Only done if our staff has suspicions. My WHMCS allows Phone Verification with my MaxMind service however I have never tried it. I also prefer the manual method. This way we can also talk to them about how they feel about their service so far.

[whosting]

you have to watch who you are accepting.

[Exlixe_Hosting]

I do not personally think this helps.

At Exlixe Hosting, we take a little bit older apporach, when we see a fraudulent site, we see what's the best desicion. Usually suspending, but it can be something else too.