Internet merchants are experiencing high losses due to fraud this holiday season, according to Gordon Ashby, MD of Virtual Card Services (VCS), a leading South African electronic payment gateway company.
"Technology research group Gartner forecasts that US online retailers alone will lose nearly $500 million (about R4.5 billion) to fraud and suspect transactions this holiday season," he said. "It is certain that other countries, including SA, will be affected similarly."
But while the Internet is a fertile and growing field for scams, Internet merchants are far from powerless to combat the problem, said Ashby.
"Firstly, use of a secure gateway is essential. This technology is now widely available and any merchant who does not make use of one is simply asking for trouble. A secure gateway eliminates a high proportion of problems.
"Secondly, it is now also possible to insure against fraud and the cost of doing so is minimal compared with the amount that merchants stand to lose."
VCS is the South African partner of WorldPay, an established international e-commerce company with partners and customers in over 90 countries dealing in more 130 currencies.
"The WorldPay Guarantee ensures that merchants who have WorldPay-enabled sites are able to accept transactions from e-shoppers completely free from the risk of losing money due to third-party fraud," said Ashby. "Victims of third-party fraud who have taken the necessary precautions, are reimbursed the full amount of the transaction by WorldPay."
The cost of the service is R200 a month plus a transaction charge that, depending on volume, can be as little as 1%. In addition WorldPay`s system automatically warns merchants of suspect transactions, and supplies-to-date information on fraud so that merchants are aware at all times of what to look out for and avoid.
More information on WorldPay is available from www.vcs.co.za.
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