It is a common misunderstanding that merchants can use their cardholder present merchant facility for internet transactions without any problem. The banks will be unhappy if a merchant accepts credit card payments without the services of an authorised PSP such as e-clear. They also do not approve of credit card details being sent in insecure e-mail's. This is in order to protect both the merchant and the customer from the risks of fraud.
Transactions carried out by these methods run the risk of being intercepted over the Internet and used fraudulently.
If you are currently trading using this method we recommend that you approach your bank and enquire about an internet merchant facility. We also recommend that you use a PSP such as e-clear.
There are various schemes throughout the internet where people on a mailing list are asked to send in their credit card details in an insecure e-mail to buy some vague product like a police radar detector or a years supply of viagara.
Some of these unscrupulous dealers do not even have an e-mail address to return your details to and they encourage you to print out a form and send your details into a anonymous collection box.
It is pretty obvious to most of us that these people are attempting to commit a fraud and they hope that by bulk e-mailing people they will at least get some response.
If you accept credit card details in the same way your customers will have no faith in your service and you run the risk of being tarred with the same brush as the criminals who exploit the internet.
Using e-clear's system protects both the merchant and the customer as at no time in the payment process are the card details visible to anyone but the customer, they are encrypted using 128 bit encryption on a secure server behind a firewall. E-clear also operates a fraud analysis system in order to further protect merchants from the risks of fraud and chargebacks. For more information on Fraud Analysis click here.
