How to prevent fraud
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 29, 2005
High Point — Thankfully, furniture stores aren't hot targets for credit frauds and identity thieves. In a business where merchandise is usually delivered to a home address, the use of a phony name to make a purchase is rare.
But credit fraud is one of the fastest-growing white-collar crimes in the United States, retail finance providers say.
Most financial companies employ experts to combat fraud. Under contract terms, however, the retailer and not the financing provider may be on the hook for losses stemming from fraudulent credit transactions.
Wells Fargo Financial Retail Services offers some common-sense fraud prevention tips for stores. Among them:
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Watch out for suspicious purchases — where the customer strongly focuses on product that is in stock and can be carried away rather than delivered, or seems to be unconcerned about price and randomly orders expensive items.
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Also be wary of purchases made by a group of people who each select merchandise, then charge everything to a single credit card.
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Other tipoffs: The customer can't provide billing information without looking at his or her ID, or merchandise is to be delivered to an address other than the customer's address.
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Check the photo ID carefully, making sure the picture is a match, and that the ID isn't expired and doesn't have glue lines or bumpy surfaces that are evidence of tampering.
A retailer who runs across a suspicious transaction can call his credit services provider for help in confirming identity, or may want to take other steps, Wells Fargo suggests:
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Ask the customer for permission to obtain an authorization on a major credit card for $1, which will verify whether it's valid.
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Get the license plate number on the customer's car.
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Contact directory assistance to verify home and work phone numbers, or call the employer to verify employment.
