How not to get scammed (A TTY Warning!)

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A couple of months ago, The Funds Transfer Alliance sent an email (attached below) warning merchants about a scam that targets merchant accounts in specific regions of the country. Since then we've heard several success stories of how the information has helped our merchants catch "scammers" in the act and how you are now on guard because of it (something we love to hear!). So we figured we'd thank you for your efforts and send an update with some of the newest tactics we are hearing about. A merchant of ours that is a medical office recently described an unsolicited request, that sounded more like a threat, demanding that she complete a "Medical Provider Questionnaire" (purposely similar to the PCI Compliance survey). If the questionnaire was not completed, she explained, their office would be fined. They were also sending someone to her location to review her merchant account statements to make sure they were "set up" appropriately as a medical office, yet they never disclosed to her the name of their business or their professional affiliation. Thankfully, while she was initially flustered by the demands and completed their questionnaire, she also remembered the email we sent and decided to call us. Together we figured out the scam and averted the potential crisis!

Now unfortunately not everyone is so lucky. Members of our Merchant Support staff were absolutely devastated to hear from a merchant who explained that they had a suspicious transaction from a person using the internet telephone support system for the deaf (TTY). The card holder lived in Texas but had a Washington area code and a Texas shipping address. Be very wary of such discrepancies. Please don't be afraid to double check the transaction with the card issuing bank by calling the 800 number on the back of the card. If the card is not present, ask the customer to provide the number to you.  If they have a problem with the request, you've caught yourself a bad guy.  In this case, the merchant lost a substantial sum of money as well as the shipped product when the actual owner of the stolen card initiated a dispute. A few days later, another merchant who also had a TTY transaction heard a segment on their local radio station about recent scams targeting business owners using the phone system for the deaf and immediately called us. Sure enough, after a little digging, we've discovered an outbreak of this type of fraud across the country. We're not asking you to discriminate against legitimate customers that need the assistance of a TTY system.  We are simply urging you to be extra thorough in qualifying the customer before sending your product. If you have any questions, my contact info is below. For more information, please read this story on MSN about TTY scams.