Employee of Prince Edward County business prevents attempted fraud
The Prince Edward County Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are investigating an incident involving a scam commonly known as card-not-present (CNP) fraud.
According to a release from the OPP, at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, a Prince Edward County OPP officer attended a business on County Road 28, where they were advised by an employee that someone had made a purchase with a credit card over the phone for approximately $2,000 in product, but when an individual attended to pick up the items, they were unable to produce the credit card used and had a different name than what was on the card used to complete the purchase. The employee refused to turn over the items as they believed it was an attempt to defraud the business.
OPP said that officers located the individual who attempted to pick up the items and a traffic stop was conducted on County Road 3. Following an investigation, approximately $3,000 worth of property was seized pending further investigation. According to the release, no charges have been laid at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.
CNP fraud commonly occurs when a business accepts orders and payments over the phone, online or by email. According to the OPP, fraudsters use stolen credit cards to pay for products or services. When the actual card owner disputes the unauthorized charge, the business must issue a chargeback to the victim’s stolen card. The business then suffers the loss of the product and the money they are required to pay back to the credit card company.
In August 2022, OPP reported that multiple businesses in eastern Ontario were reporting similar CNP scams, and one business in Pembroke reportedly lost over $10,000.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre offers the following information to help prevent CNP fraud:
Warning Signs
Customer Flags
- Orders made from one IP address, but using different names, addresses, and payments.
- Email addresses from free email service.
- Many card numbers provided for one order (cards keep getting declined).
- Purchaser name and cardholder name are different.
How to Protect Yourself
- Know the Red Flags and verify every order request received.
- Before shipping merchandise, verify the information provided by the customer (telephone number, email address, shipping address, etc.).
- Be aware of request for priority shipments for fraud?prone merchandise.
- Verify priority shipping requests when the shipping and billing addresses don’t match.
- For suspicious orders, contact your payment processor. Verify the security measures to prevent victimization and reduce unwanted chargebacks.
- Never accept overpayments to forward funds to a third party.
For more information, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.
Not quite on point but:
Dynamic CVV (dCVV) Code dynamic CVV2 code, is a technology that allows cardholders to enter a dynamic (or changing) CVV code at the time of checkout. Rather than rely on the static 3- or 4-digit code printed on a physical card, the customer can enter a code that changes on a frequent basis. This offers greater protection against criminal fraud.
The first CVV codes were issued as a direct response to the growth in online shopping. While it was relatively easy to validate buyers in a card-present environment, merchants and cardholders never meet face-to-face in a phone or online purchase.
The inclusion of card security codes on payment cards provided an additional roadblock to stopping potential fraudsters. A buyer would need to have access to the card number, expiration date, and this additional security code to validate a transaction. While it was not foolproof, CVV codes at least introduced an additional roadblock to stop fraud.