Selling on the Internet is a great way to expand your market beyond your local community. But when you take credit cards without having the card present, you increase your risk of selling merchandise to someone using a stolen credit card. And, since all the risk in online sales is born by the merchant, if someone buys merchandise from you using a stolen credit card, you'll have to refund the charge amount to the real credit card owner even though you shipped the merchandise to the crook who stole the card.

To limit your risk, use an address verification systems for your online sales. Then, watch out for t for suspicious sales. These include:

• Unusually large orders placed through the Internet without any contact from the customer.
• Rush orders for large quantities or high-priced goods. Crooks may ask to have an order shipped overnight so they know exactly what day the order will arrive and they can be waiting to pick it up.
• Missing information, or information the customer refuses to give such as a day-time phone number.
• Orders that are shipped to a different address than the billing address.
• Orders from foreign countries
• Orders on US cards shipped to foreign countries
• Billing addresses that don't match the information on file with the credit card company.

If you see a suspicious order come through, call the customer to verify it before you ship. If the dollar amount is large, check with your credit card processor to be sure the credit card hasn't been reported stolen.

More >> Avoid Credit Card Fraud and Charge Backs

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