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Here’s a real example that happened to him a few years ago. He was out of town on business and there was a big sale, around $15K if I recall, to a customer fro

Here’s a real example that happened to him a few years ago. He was out of town on business and there was a big sale, around $15K if I recall, to a customer from Mexico. The sale was done just before closing (something he saw in the review) and the card was manually keyed in. The story was that the guy’s card “wasn’t reading” so the employee keyed it in manually, a huge red flag. The charge went through but of course ended up in a charge-back a bit later. If you weren’t scrutinizing your receipts and doing double-checking of the big sales, you might miss this until the chargeback hits. For him, there was nothing to do except educate employees and double-down on policies regarding manually-entered cards, big sales made just before closing, etc.

EE84M3i 5y ago
Could you explain why a big sale just before closing is an indicator of fraud? I don't understand.
- chrissnell 5y ago
  In a brick-and-mortar business, closing time is when employees (i.e, non-owners) are in a hurry to get the store cleaned up and shut down so that they can go home. They’re tired and they might feel pressured to just get the sale done. Scammers know this and so closing time is a good time to come in and try to pass off a fake credit card with a stolen number. Weekends, when many less-seasoned employees work, is another popular time.
  - quantum_magpie 5y ago
    That's also the only time (closing time and weekends) for anyone with a job to buy stuff, no? Assuming normal closing hours of 18:00-20:00 o'clock of course.
    - brk 5y ago
      Yes, absolutely, and this is why fraud detection is often as much art as science. In the example above, you have someone coming in making a large purchase, which is probably odd if you've never seen this person before (eg: you would have expected them to come in and "kick the tires" and talk to employees a few times before making the actual purchase, even if they did a lot of online research). Plus the non-working card, and being late in the day. Of course, it's also possible that the whole transaction could be legit. If you suspect fraud though you can often do or say things to gauge the persons response. Tell them that for such an expensive purchase you'd really like to tune the bike up and make sure it's perfect, can they come back and pick it up first thing in the morning? Stuff like that, if the person accepts that, or seems to genuinely consider it, it's probably not a fraud sale. If their immediate reaction is "no way", or they get defensive, it could be a red flag.
- diatone 5y ago
  The fraud indicator in this case is that the card is a dupe, hence why the machine couldn’t read it and the number needed to be manually entered. So when the charge went through, some poor soul elsewhere in the world had to issue a chargeback. ed: sibling comment nailed it also. Didn’t even consider that, good stuff

EE84M3i 5y ago

Could you explain why a big sale just before closing is an indicator of fraud? I don't understand.

chrissnell 5y ago
In a brick-and-mortar business, closing time is when employees (i.e, non-owners) are in a hurry to get the store cleaned up and shut down so that they can go home. They’re tired and they might feel pressured to just get the sale done. Scammers know this and so closing time is a good time to come in and try to pass off a fake credit card with a stolen number. Weekends, when many less-seasoned employees work, is another popular time.
- quantum_magpie 5y ago
  That's also the only time (closing time and weekends) for anyone with a job to buy stuff, no? Assuming normal closing hours of 18:00-20:00 o'clock of course.
  - brk 5y ago
    Yes, absolutely, and this is why fraud detection is often as much art as science. In the example above, you have someone coming in making a large purchase, which is probably odd if you've never seen this person before (eg: you would have expected them to come in and "kick the tires" and talk to employees a few times before making the actual purchase, even if they did a lot of online research). Plus the non-working card, and being late in the day. Of course, it's also possible that the whole transaction could be legit. If you suspect fraud though you can often do or say things to gauge the persons response. Tell them that for such an expensive purchase you'd really like to tune the bike up and make sure it's perfect, can they come back and pick it up first thing in the morning? Stuff like that, if the person accepts that, or seems to genuinely consider it, it's probably not a fraud sale. If their immediate reaction is "no way", or they get defensive, it could be a red flag.
diatone 5y ago
The fraud indicator in this case is that the card is a dupe, hence why the machine couldn’t read it and the number needed to be manually entered. So when the charge went through, some poor soul elsewhere in the world had to issue a chargeback. ed: sibling comment nailed it also. Didn’t even consider that, good stuff