Online Shoppers and Fraudulent Card Transactions

WE realize and are quite happy with that, that you prefer shopping online to battling it out at the malls for the following reasons:
--- fighting the traffic jam while driving to the malls
--- getting stressed out just looking for a parking space
--- walking around in search of products can be sooo tiring
--- walking around some more, this time carrying your sometimes multiple heavy "shopping bags" (this is when you physically DROP in the classic "shop until you drop story"
--- higher costs of products (brick & mortal stores raise their costs to cover higher rent and utilities and manpower)

Yes . . . Online Shopper - we are pleased that you prefer shopping online from home for reasons that were previously discussed.

True, we now have a high number of online merchants who use the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Encryption on their check out pages (Reminder: Remember to look up at the address bar from your PC for that "S" after "http" during check-out to verify whether you are on a secure page at check-out or not). BUT YOU still have got to help us ascertain that your order is legitimate and authorized by you!

This is important - Leave us your VALID, working telephone numbers and your primary e-mail addresses at check-out. Our intention is neither to spam you nor sell your contact information to a third party. That is a myth. WE simply want to call you and be able to vertify with you WHENEVER we get those little red flags of warning when we process your credit card. Identity and authorization verification from the person whose name is on the card is NECESSARY especially for orders that ship to addresses OTHER than the billing address.

The identity thieves always want to ship their loot to an address other than the billing address for obvious reasons. We are not saying that all orders that ship to addresses other than the billing address are fraudelent. BUT when the online merchant literally gets those red flags as sales are processed, IT IS TIME TO CALL THE CREDIT CARD HOLDER and ask whether he or she indeed placed that order.

At SHOPDROPS.COM, we have our Yahoo risk tools enabled all the time(Address Validation System (AVS) and Card Verification Value (CVV) included) so that whenever we get an incorrect address or a wrong zip code or CVV mismatch, we get alerted to do our verification steps.

While there is no guarantee of safety on the web, you can minimize online privacy or security problems by using websites you know and trust. Try to use sites you've used previously or that are recommended by trusted friends or family. One thing is sure --- there are many safe sites out there that you can trust.