Online fraudsters are being targeted by First Atlantic Commerce's (FAC) new suite of risk prevention services launched yesterday.

Bermuda-based FAC unveiled its 'card-not-present' consumer pre-authentication and data risk management programmes to reduce or mitigate RC23 and RC83 chargebacks from online payment 'friendly fraud' in the current credit crisis.

The combined host of solutions will help bank acquirers, online merchants and IPSPs in the fight against increased abuse of friendly fraud related chargebacks, which are on the rise as a result of the fall-out from the credit crunch.

"Consumers that charged transactions to their credit cards in August and September are now charging them back under the 'zero liability' Issuer programmes (chargeback RC23 and 83) simply because they can no longer afford to pay their bills due to job losses or investment/savings losses," said Andrea Wilson, CEO of FAC.

"We have seen a considerable increase in 'Unauthorised Transaction' chargebacks since October, and it reflects the current situation in the credit card markets."

Businesses, banks, card associations, payment processors, call centres and any online financial service providers could be potential targets of cardholder credit card fraud, whether it is friendly fraud or from skimming, phishing and identify theft scams, according to Ms Wilson.

"In this current credit crisis market, the online industry as a whole needs to be far more pro-active in pre-authentication of credit card transactions and/or consumers ahead of a friendly-fraud loss," she said.

FAC's cGate® SecureRisk solutions can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the client's risk profile, including support of AVS and CVV2/CVC2 match checks without a payment authorisation, call centre AVS-only solutions, and AVS data matching to IP Geolocation verification requests.

These solutions help to identify if the person carrying out the transaction has the card or account, but will not prevent a friendly fraud chargeback from occurring. 3-D Secure™ solutions, however, will.

FAC's multi-region 3-D Secure™ Solutions for Verified by Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode™ are available as a standalone service to acquiring banks and merchants, who wish to shift the financial liability of chargebacks for RC23 and RC83 back to the Issuer and cardholder who performed the original transaction.

FAC's 3-D Secure™-only services can be implemented independently of payment gateway transaction services, providing more flexibility to acquirers and payment processors for payment screening.

Merchants that participate in Verified by Visa have chargeback liability shift protection on all transactions that are charged back for RC23 and RC83 if an attempt to authenticate the cardholder is performed and the transaction is authorised.

The protection is also available for fully authenticated Verified by Visa transactions on a global basis whether the cardholder or Issuers are enrolled/participating or not.

MasterCard SecureCode™ offers merchant liability shift on attempted SecureCode™ authentications in all regions except the US. If a merchant is registered with a participating acquirer outside the US they will have chargeback liability shift on attempted SecureCode™ authentications on payment transactions that are authorised - even from US cardholders - which are subsequently then charged back for RC23 and RC83.

For more information on First Atlantic Commerce's online fraud and data management services email info@fac.bm or visit www.firstatlanticcommerce.com