Acumen Connections is Helping Protect You from the Spike in Fraud in March and April
Since the stay-at-home order started, we have seen an increase in fraud. As your payment provider, we take steps to help protect your business from fraud. One way we do this is by high-ticket items. Have you had one recently? If you accept online or phone orders, you will want to read this.
We know that dealing with a high-ticket item can be frustrating. However, we have high-ticket items in place to help protect you and your company. High-ticket items help prevent you from being charged back thousands of dollars. With the recent increase in fraud levels, you might be seeing more high-ticket items. Today we will answer three questions. Why is fraud increasing? What is a high-ticket item? Why has there been such a recent increase in high-ticket items?
Why is Fraud Increasing?
With the stay-at-home order in place, more people are staying home and committing fraud. You read that right. Of course, the main point of the order is for people to stay home and safe. Instead, some people use this as an opportunity to commit identity theft.
It might be easy to catch someone committing fraud in-person. You might notice if a large bearded man in his 20’s tried to use a credit card with the name Evelyn Eleanor. Something about this might seem strange. You could refuse him service. You could even contact authorities to report the stolen credit card. However, you might only catch this if this man walked into your store and you were able to see him. If he had placed the order online, you would have no way of knowing. You would simply assume that a sweet old lady was just shopping online. If the transaction was done online, you might not have suspicions that it was fraudulent.
Identity theft and fraudsters know that online shopping, and even over-the-phone shopping, is safer for them. There is a reason that many people commit credit card fraud over the internet. In 2017, e-commerce fraud increased 30% from the previous year! It is easier to commit fraud online than it is in-person. People are stealing credit cards, using them to purchase items, and then sending those items to their own address.
There is good news. By working with Acumen Connections, together, we can help prevent fraudulent charges from happening. We can help protect your business from having a fraudulent charge. We can help protect your business from getting charged back. Together, we can even help the identity theft victim by ensuring that the charge is not completed. We can do all of these things with a high-ticket item.
What Is a High-Ticket Item?
We get it. High-ticket items can be frustrating. No one likes interruptions to their day. When you have a high-ticket item, it can be an interruption to your day. The high-ticket process starts when the processor flags a sale. That sale’s funds will be temporarily held until more information is provided. You might be asked to send in the signed receipt. You might be asked to send the summary page of your last three bank statements. Once you send in the necessary information, and everything is approved, you will get your funds.
We have the high-ticket item process to protect your business. A high-ticket item is any sale that is much larger than your usual sales. Your processor might notice that a person bought more than usual, either by price or quantity. There are a number of reasons that a high-ticket sale could happen. A shopper could be using a stolen credit card, a number might have accidentally been typed wrong, or you could have had an incredible sale.
A high-ticket item is done to rule out the first two scenarios. If a person is using a stolen credit card, or an employee typed the incorrect number, you will be liable for paying back the full amount. If the sale was worth thousands, it might be difficult to pay it back all at once. If you have already spent the funds, then you might be in trouble. A high-ticket item exists to protect you from getting charged back hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Every payment processor keeps an eye out for suspicious high-ticket items. It helps protect your business and our business. We want to make sure that nothing is incorrect. We want to make sure you will not be charged back in such a way that may devastate your company.
A high-ticket item is a temporary pause on funds. It is there to protect your company.
For more information on high-ticket items, check out our blog or watch this video:
Why Has There Been Such a Recent Increase in High-Ticket Items?
The increase in high-ticket items is because of the increase in fraudulent activity. More credit card theft means more high-ticket items. We have not increased what gets flagged. The change only happened because of the number of people that are committing fraud changed. The number of high-ticket items we are seeing will go back down when the level of fraud decreases.
Right now, during the pandemic, it is important to stay informed. One effect of the stay-at-home order is that online shopping has increased. This has led to an increase in fraud. We wanted to provide this PSA for our customers. We want our customers to be informed about the trends that are happening now with online shopping. Together, we can help stop credit card fraud and identity theft. Together, we can help protect your company.
