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That's what MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) and TMF (Terminated Merchant File) are for. When someone establishes a merchant account, they m
by dangrossman 14y ago
That's what MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) and TMF (Terminated Merchant File) are for.
When someone establishes a merchant account, they must provide the tax IDs (SSNs) of the principals of the business, not just the business itself. If the account is terminated for an egregious offense, like fraud, all those principals get added to MATCH and TMF, which all acquiring banks have access to when reviewing new applications.
In theory, it should be impossible to open multiple Visa/MasterCard merchant accounts for fraudulent purposes without having a new human being signing up each time, not just a new shell corporation.
- bradleyland 14y agoIt has been years since I worked in the industry, but once upon a time, I worked for some online pharmacy guys. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never spammed anyone, and we never did anything nefarious (technologically speaking). Anyway, things might have changed theses days, but the guy who ran that business was always fighting to keep merchant accounts online. He kept the dev team out of the business side, but I overheard plenty of conversations involving fake identities and shell companies. I have little doubt that its harder than it used to be, but still, it remains a "cost of doing business" issue.