• The cardholder or the issuing bank initiates chargeback's
• Sales documents are not signed.
• Terminals are not used properly.
• Fraudulent Transaction.
• Unauthoried Transaction.
• Credit was not issued.
• Recurring Transaction was cancelled.
• Not an actual approved authorization.
• Charge was not processed at time of service.
• Authorizations are done in partial amounts instead of the entire amount.

Ways to Minimize Chargeback's and Fraud (Card Present).

• Swipe the card.
• Get a signature.
• Match signature on card to signature on sales draft.
• Compare account # on card to account # on terminal-printed sales draft.
• Take imprint of card.
• If card is damaged, cannot be swiped, signature is illegible, or cannot be imprinted, ask for another form of payment.
• Deposit every day.
• Get valid authorization code.
• Look for the flying V on all Visa cards and the MC on MasterCard.
• Look for Holograms.
• Make sure credits or returns are made to the same card the debit or purchase was on.
• Do not write out a sale on a credit voucher or a credit on a sale voucher.
• Keep sales records for appropriate length of time.
• Protecting yourself against Counterfeit Cards. (PDF)
• Skimming is an illegal act that helps criminals obtain credit card account information to produce counterfeit cards. (PDF)

Ways to Minimize Chargeback's and Fraud (Not Card Present).

• Get a valid authorization code for all Mail Order or Telephone Order (MOTO) transactions.
• Use AVS With CVV2 (CID,CVC) for on all Mail Order or Telephone Order (MOTO) transactions.
• Ask for the issuer's phone number (listed on the back of the card) to confirm address if it does not verify.
• Ship only to the address you verified using AVS.
• Never ship outside the country.
• Avoid sale that originate via email.
• Google the address to make sure it is not an overseas shipper.

 How do merchants receive retrieval requests?

• The cardholder and/or issuing bank initiates retrievals.
• Merchants are notified by fax or by mail.
• Not all Chargebacks have a prior retrieval request; regulations are requiring fewer retrievals and eventually retrieval requests may not exist.

How merchants receive and dispute Chargebacks

• We represents our merchants during the chargeback process. We follow all Visa and MasterCard rules and regulations.
• Research is completed before any chargeback decision is made. If documentation or an explanation is required to reverse the chargeback, a request is sent to the merchant and immediate response is required. At this time the merchant is debited until it can disprove the cardholder dispute with written documentation within required timeframe.
• When responding to a chargeback the merchant is requested to use our advice as a cover sheet, to read the explanation of the remedy printed on the bottom of the advice sheet, to include all required information, and to send documentation and cover sheet to the attention of the Rebuttals Department.
• The merchant must respond immediately as we only have a short time to rebut a chargeback. This is a very time sensitive process.

Who processes the chargeback?

• Issuing bank, using association regulations.
• Not all Chargebacks require a retrieval request.
• Not all retrievals become Chargebacks.
• Cardholder is credited. Merchant is debited and then the process of rebuttal begins.
• Merchants should never credit the cardholder - the chargeback already does this.

Fighting fraud in every transaction

Fraud prevention has never been so critical. Although many transactions still take place in a face-to-face situation, an increasing amount of purchases are made online, over the phone, or through the mail where there is no card present.

Today's scam artists are savvy to the security features and processes involved with each of these transaction types. And merchants must take extra precautions, because they are financially responsible for any fraudulent transaction, even those approved by the card issuer.

• 5 Simple Steps to safer key-entered transaction (PDF)
• Are You playing it safe at the point of sale (PDF)
• If the card is not there you need to be more aware (PDF)
• Take the order-but don't get taken in (PDF)
• Heads up to the warring signs of fraud (PDF)
• Counterfeit cards (PDF)
• Skimming Card Information (PDF)