Merchant Accounts for Businesses Offering Identity Theft Protection

Identity theft is on the rise, as digital technologies make it easier than ever to steal someone’s financial information. Often, the victim may not even know that someone else has hold of their credit card details until their next bill comes in. But businesses are at risk from identity theft, too, since these transactions often go unnoticed by fraud detection systems. Worst of all, some fraudsters may even open a merchant account in the name of a business, in order to start processing stolen credit cards.

To avoid being caught, these criminals will typically process the stolen cards in relatively small amounts. As such, the process can carry on for quite a while before anyone notices what is going on. At this point, an important question arises: who is going to cover the cost of the fraud? While the card providers are likely insured, they usually do all that they can to get out of paying. The same thing goes for banks when debit cards are involved. All too often, it is the processor who has to cover the cost- which is why they have to take steps to ensure they only work with legitimate businesses.

To get away with identity theft, fraudsters typically only need a relatively small amount of information about their victim. They also exploit any loopholes they can find- one common trick is to use an address which will pass fraud detection systems, but is ever so slightly wrong. Any mail sent by the account provider will therefore be undeliverable, and the victim will never know that their business is being used as part of a scam. For this very reason, merchant account service providers will ask for more in-depth documentation from applicants. If the underwriter has any reason to be suspicious about an application, then they will then request further documentation which they know fraudsters won’t have access to. At this point, the criminals know the game is up, and typically back down before they are caught.

Of course, there are knock-on effects to this process. For one thing, it means that businesses can’t open a merchant account instantly. Instead, they will have to wait a few days for their application to be manually checked over by an underwriter. But the benefits of the system far outweigh the drawbacks. Not only are the number of instances of identity theft kept to a minimum, but it also protects the merchant account providers from having to cover the costs of that theft. Ultimately, this means that they can offer lower rates to their account holders for payment processing. While it can be a little frustrating if you are eager to begin taking card payments, these identity theft precautions are worth it in the long run.