A merchant just questioned an order that was placed with suspicious anomalies:

• The Shipping address had no las name
• The state was WI but the city and zip were in New Jersey
• And the Billing and shipping phone# were the same

We recommended they call the customer to verify the order, credit the order (which was successfully processed, but I recommended looking into Shipping Address Verification through their payment gateway), and have the customer re-enter the order with the appropriate information.

I can envision why someone MIGHT want to use the same phone#, as long as it's the ONLY anomaly in the billing/shipping details. Otherwise, maybe NOT allowing duplicate shipping and billing phone #s makes sense?

Thanks for the reply.

Tim Gorski

Where does the IP address point to...
That's a big one we look at.
Thanks,
David

We occasionally get orders with similarly inconsistent customer information.

I definitely recommend that the merchant call the buyer to verify the address and avoid being defrauded.

Before calling, they might check the number on a site like www.phonevalidator.com that tells you whether it's a cell phone, landline or VoIP - and the service provider location. If it's a cell that's based in an unexpected state, or VoIP like Google Voice or MagicJack, that could serve as a warning.

We always require that every buyer provide a first and last name for UPS, since we've been stung with two-way shipping and address correction fees when this sort of information was missing from the label.

The explanations for inconsistent information can include:

- Outright fraud;
- Entering the order on a tiny cell phone browser;
- Entering the order on a browser with aggressive auto-complete;
- Someone who isn't internet-savvy;
- Someone with a disability.

There have been times when I've called expecting a fraudser, yet the buyer turned out to be a visually-impaired senior.

Depending on how much the shipping label fee changes with any address correction vs. your payment card fees, it may cost you less to correct the order rather than to refund it.

I use the below manual phone search as it provides the type of phone but also provides names and addresses. ALL for FREE

https://www.searchpeoplefree.com/

If you want a complete FaudMod package you can get it from Mike Beebe.

This MOD has saved me lots of money and headaches. I still get one once in a great while, like if someone has their complete identity stolen then there isn't anything you can do about that.

But this MOD works.

https://dlss.ca/proddetail.asp?prod=FraudMOD

Patrick