Released on = November 28, 2005, 2:44 pm

Press Release Author = MaxMind

Industry = Retail

Press Release Summary = Boston, MA, November 28, 2005-As E-tailers prepare for the
year\'s busiest shopping season starting Cyber Monday, MaxMind offers 7 tips for
merchants to verify and prevent fraud from online credit card transactions.

Press Release Body = 1) Perform Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card
Verification Value (CVV) checks. If the order passes both checks, accept the order
for further processing but do not capture the credit card charge. Instead, select
the \"Authorization/Pending Capture\" mode because fraudsters can easily obtain
information to pass these checks. Failing the CVV check indicates that the purchaser
may not be in possession of the actual card. Orders that fail the AVS check should
be processed with more caution.

2) Lookup the customer\'s IP address with a geolocation service provider that also
detects anonymous proxies. In most cases, the general geographical location of the
IP address should match either the billing or shipping address. Orders from
anonymous proxies are considered to have higher risks because fraudsters often use
anonymous proxies to hide their true IP addresses.

3) Check the geographical location of the IP address against known high-risk
countries such as Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Morocco, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

4) Check if the goods will be shipped to a mail-forwarding company when the shipping
and billing address are different. An order with a mail-forward address is
considered risky since the goods may be shipped overseas.

5) Ensure that the provided zip code corresponds to the city and state fields for
both billing and shipping address. AVS only checks the zip code and the numeric
portion of the street address. Fraudsters may not always have the complete address
and may be too lazy do a zip code reverse lookup for additional information.

6) Request that the customer fax a signed authorization form with copies of the
front and back of the credit card if the order is suspicious. This is usually fairly
effective but fraudsters have been known to be able to create images of the front
and back of credit cards using graphic design software.

7) Ask the customer to provide the bank name and customer service phone number as
listed on the credit card. Call customer service to verify if the given phone number
matches records for the cardholder. If it matches, call the customer to authorize
the transaction. If they are unaware of the purchase, suggest that they call the
credit card company and report the card as stolen. This is one of the most effective
methods, but is time-consuming.

Source: MaxMind
MaxMind is an industry-leading provider of geolocation and online fraud detection
tools. To learn more about MaxMind and its online fraud detection products, visit
http://www.maxmind.com. For media inquiries, please contact Ed Lin at 617-267-0040
or at pr@maxmind.com.


Web Site = http://www.maxmind.com

Contact Details = Ed Lin
617-267-0040
pr@maxmind.con
306 Dartmouth Street
Suite 337
Boston, MA 02116