New Solution Helps Combat ‘Friendly Fraud’ Chargebacks

US Digital Transactions Corporation (USDT) announced availability of a solution designed to help combat the growing problem of “friendly fraud,” the term used for when a consumer purchases an item, receives it, and without valid reason refuses acceptance of the charge for the transaction by initiating a chargeback with their bank/card issuer.

In the world of online commerce, e-tailers are forced to manage not only the destructive effects of criminal fraud, but more increasingly friendly fraud. Last year, 20% of the $139 billion dollars of fraud was directly attributed to friendly fraud.

USDT’s Solution, SignatureLink CNPS technology, is available to provide protection for online merchants by using an online signature pad designed and engineered exclusively for ecommerce merchants to capture a “wet” signature during the online checkout process. The merchant and the consumer are presented the entire transaction record including the agreed upon terms and conditions, cancellation / refund policy and the purchaser’s wet signature.

When a chargeback is initiated, under current consumer protection regulations, the burden of proof is placed on the merchant to produce irrefutable legal evidence of proof of purchase. More often than not, the final decision favors the friendly fraudster.

USDT says its technology is the missing link for the card-not-present (CNP) ecommerce industry to validate and certify every purchase transaction as a legally binding agreement. According to the company, the virtual signature pad, once deployed, will grant all online payment transactions equal access to the same legal protection and defense afforded to card-present transactions with a signature. Additionally, the company says its patent-pending process in which SignatureLink records an electronic signature is HIPPA compliant and attorney tested to be 100% legal and compliant with both U.S. Federal UETA of 1999 and ESIGN Act of 2000.

SignatureLink mirrors the look and feel of a typical card-present signature pad consumers are already familiar with, eliminating confusion and creating easy adoption. The purchaser simply signs the signature pad with a stylus or mouse during the checkout process. Once executed, the signature, transaction details and terms and conditions are captured and the detailed record is then archived in SignatureLink’s PCI & HIPPA compliant data vault. SignatureLink’s cloud-based on-demand application is served in dual redundant and geographically disbursed data centers.

The online signature pad is easily incorporated within the merchant’s existing eCommerce engine, shopping cart or payment gateway and allows the inclusion of a customized promise-to-pay purchase agreement into their current checkout process. In the event the merchant receives a retrieval request from his/her payment processor, the forensic record is retrievable within seconds from the SignatureLink data vault. The merchant is able to present the entire transaction record including the agreed upon terms and conditions and the consumer’s wet signature.