We are at the half-way mark in becoming PCI Compliant. We took a little break for Fraud Awareness Week and now we are ready to “Maintain a Vulnerability Management System”. Our previous efforts have been focused on Building and Maintaining a Secure Network and Protecting Cardholder Data. We now have a firewall, clear policies regarding the type of information we will store, and the length of time we will store it. We even have encryption software and an SSL certificate. Congratulations!

Now, we need to Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program. This comes in two parts. First, we need to use and regularly update anti-virus software. Then, we have to develop and maintain secure systems and applications. I know what anti-virus software is, so let’s start there.

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A recent BizReport.com article has some welcome news for online merchants as well as very sound advice.

“Online retailers are, according to Shop.org’s eHoliday Study, expecting increased holiday sales this year and, in preparation, are attracting bargain-hungry shoppers with free delivery.”

This is good news! After a couple years of worried customers and lagging sales, this comes as welcome encouragement. This also tells us that while customers are willing to spend money, they are still looking at price as a deciding factor. Offering your customers an incentive, like free shipping, to buy your product could be the deciding factor your customer needs to make that important decision to complete their sale.

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Buy-Fengshui.com

Originated from ancient China about three thousand years ago, a part of Feng shui, known as symbolism Feng Shui is the knowledge of placing good fortune symbols in proper position or direction of your home to harness the Chi which harmonizes the area of its influence, bringing about good fortune, good health, prosperity and happiness to the practitioner. Symbolism Feng Shui is very easy to apply and potent too.

We carry over 2000 Feng Shui enhancers, remedies and cures. Each of them is accompanied by information and Feng Shui tips which will help you to choose the proper products to energize your home or office.

Don’t forget to check out what the year of Tiger 2010 holds for you. How do the Chinese twelve horoscope animal signs fare and what Feng Shui enhancers and cures can help you make the most out of next year.

Buy-FengShui.com is having a year end MEGA SALES now. On top of that we have a wide selection of products with free shipping. We’re also giving away free gifts for a minimum purchase of $60. See you there and Happy Shopping!

Let’s Feng Shui Your Way to a Better Life!

Click here to visit Buy-Fengshui.com

Click here to apply to be a 2CO Spotlight.

Fraud is prevalent in all Internet transactions, especially when the product is intangible. We have been in this industry long enough to see significant growth and development. We have also been here to see the growth and development of fraudulent activity. We would like to remind you that it is important to utilize 2Checkout’s fraud review. We have the advantage of state-of-the-art software and a knowledgeable staff with 35 years collective experience. In addition to our fraud review, we encourage you to utilize the information made available to you in the vendor administration area. We would like to give you some tips on how to recognize legitimate orders while preventing fraud.

While it is important to mitigate fraud, you want to be sure that you are not inadvertently denying legitimate business. With the current credit card system in place, we are not as protected as a traditional retailer is. Because we are working in a “Card Not Present” environment, chargebacks will occur. We have found on average, 12% of your orders may appear to be suspicious, but only 1% will end up being fraudulent. It is very important that you don’t insult the 11% legitimate customers just to catch the 1% fraudulent customers. While working with digital products, losses are less formidable because there are no shipping fees and no items to be lost. The following information will help you to differentiate between legitimate customers and fraudsters.

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One of the more challenging issues we have to work around involves new vendors. While we do have a wealth of knowledge and experience relating to the various types of fraud, it can prove somewhat more problematic to link this knowledge with a new vendor. First, we must understand our vendor and the aspects of their business that may be at risk of fraudulent activity.

Types of customers and fraud:

With all new vendors, we must start from the ground up. From the moment our partnership begins, we attempt to assess what types of customers our vendors will be receiving. For the purpose of this study, we reviewed one of our new vendors and will now refer to them as “Supplier A“. In the case of Supplier A, several discrepancies were located in each order placed through their system. We noticed discrepancies between the billing information and the IP addresses, as well as discrepancies within our internal tools. While not unusual to find orders with these types of discrepancies, we did find that each new order placed had very similar discrepancies. This made it appear that the same person or group was attempting to circumvent the fraud review process and get by undetected. When we noticed such a large percent of Supplier A’s orders with these same discrepancies we then proceeded to take a higher level of caution with all new orders reviewed. It appeared that the trends changed slightly, receiving orders with matching billing addresses and IP addresses but suspicious email addresses as well as substantial and consistent discrepancies within our internal tools. This may have been the work of the same person or fraud ring placing the original orders, but it is also possible that the vendor was being hit by other fraudsters.

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