Linda Punch reports on how frustrated online merchants are coming together to attempt to develop their own solutions to online fraud.
It‚s understandable why Web merchants are looking for relief. A 2002 Gartner Inc. survey found that fraudulent transactions comprise 1% of total online transactions, 15 times higher than fraud in the physical world. Online retail sales increased 27% to $45.6 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And an e-merchant‚s losses can extend beyond the actual cost of the product or service charged to a fraudulent card. Because they operate in a card-not-present environment, e-merchants also are subject to the card associations‚ highest interchange rates, the portion of each transaction paid by acquirers to issuers in return for guaranteed payment. Visa‚s interchange rate for e-commerce is 1.80% of the sale plus 10 cents. That compares with Visa‚s card-present retail rate of 1.39% plus 10 cents. Under MasterCard‚s interchange rates, Internet merchants pay 1.90% plus 10 cents, compared with 1.40% plus 10 cents for card-present retail transactions.