Important IndieCommerce Fraud Alert

As online holiday sales volume has increased, so has the frequency of online fraud. Last week, two bookstores contacted the IndieCommerce team about fraudulent orders placed via their sites using stolen credit card numbers. IndieCommerce then checked the e-mail addresses used for those two purchases against orders placed on other store sites and found seven additional fraudulent orders that had not been detected. All of the affected stores were notified by the IndieCommerce team.

In each case, the shipping address and the billing address for the credit card were different and the e-mail address being used was for a business, not an individual. The IndieCommerce system will automatically display a warning when the billing and shipping address do not match. The system will also display a link to a page with additional instructions.

All of the fraudulent purchases were for amounts under $40, so they did not stand out when the orders were being processed.

Before filling orders, all stores are urged to check for the following:

1. Is the credit card billing address on the order the same as the shipping address?
2. Is either the credit card billing address or the shipping address within the same state as your bookstore?

If the answer is no to both 1 and 2, stores should not process the order; instead they should immediately e-mail [email protected] with the order information and the IndieCommerce team will investigate further.