Electronic Clearing House, Inc.
R E V E R B E R A T I O N S R E V E R B E R AT I O N S
August 2007
Vol. XII No. 8
Consumer Trust Looms Large on the Future of E-Commerce
You have likely read news about various security breaches and the large numbers of consumers that
were affected in each case. You may have even breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't your business or your
customers. And while the integrity of your business should not have been affected, there appears to be no
way of preventing the wave of mistrust that is sweeping over consumers. This is especially the case when
it comes to e-commerce.
Though it may not be fair, every online breach of trust that occurs, affects the online sector as a whole.
As consumers hear about these security breaches, and though they may not have been touched directly,
their confidence in the security of their personal data diminishes.
In a survey performed by Gartner (the world's leading information technology research and advisory
company) of 5,000 online adults, almost half of those surveyed stated that their concerns about information
theft and Internet security breaches was having an affect on their online practices. The most heavily affected
online practice was online commerce. After analyzing the data collected from their survey, Gartner estimated
that about $913 million in potential e-commerce sales were lost in 2006, due to the security concerns of online
shoppers. Consumers' trust in e-commerce and the protection of their personal information is declining.
As merchants, this information is just another reminder of the importance of the Payment Card Industry
Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). These standards are in place to protect both the consumer and the
future of commerce. If data security breaches continue to increase, consumer trust could be completely
lost. For questions on PCI please call ECHO Security at 00-262-3246 ext. 7.
Got Software
If you are using a software solution that has been developed specifically for your type of business by a third-party
provider, we would love to hear about it. ECHO is looking to partner with those providers and to integrate our
payment processing with their software.
A recent example of this is ECHO's partnership with Professional Solutions, a market leader in childcare management
software with more than 15,000 clients. This partnership enables Professional Solutions to consolidate and simplify
their payment processing services by using ECHO as a single processor for their childcare clients' electronic check
and credit card payments.
Please let us know if you are using a software solution that could be integrated with our services. If you provide
us with the name of the company, we will contact them and discuss the possibility of working together to simplify
payment processing with your software.
our Customer Support department is open 24 hours daily and can be reached at 800-262-3246, ext. 1.
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Electronic Clearing House, Inc.
730 Paseo Camarillo
Camarillo, California 93010
1-805-419-8700
www.echo-inc.com
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Why am I not receiving money on my
authorized transactions?
ANSWER:
This is an issue that is usually limited to merchants who run mail-order, Internet, or other similar business
where the authorization to the transaction and the deposit do not always happen simultaneously. A merchant
in these cases will get an authorization and then wait to make the deposit until after the product is shipped,
i.e., a "delayed deposit." However, to receive your funds, you must follow every credit card authorization
with a deposit transaction.
Things to remember when making a delayed deposit
- Always use the original authorization number you received.
- Never deposit funds until you have provided the service or delivered the product.
- Usually, the dollar amount of the deposit and the authorization must match (10% leeway allowed,
20% for restaurants, additional exceptions apply for other types of businesses). If there is a
discrepancy between the authorized amount and the deposit, you will be charged an additional
incremental fee.
- Timing is everything. If you fail to make a deposit within a specific time frame you will pay increased
incremental fees. The timing is dependent on your type of business. To learn what specifically
applies to you, check your Merchant Bank Card Agreement or most recent Incremental Fee
Addendum (May 2007).
Prescription for Fraud
Be careful how you discard old medicine bottles and the paperwork that
accompanies them. Fraudsters are using these items as a new venue for theft.
These items contain enough of the necessary information to allow these
criminals to steal patient identity and to illegally gain access to medical services
and pharmaceuticals.
So how do fraudsters get these prescription bottles They
search through garbage to find them. And once found they
can use the information on them to get medications for
people who can't get them legally. They can obtain drugs
and then sell them in the underground drug trade. They can
fraudulently gain access to medical services. These thieves
can even bill insurance companies for services that the actual
insured patient never received.
This is another reminder of how carefully we must discard anything that
contains any personal information that could be found by the wrong person
and later used to commit fraud.
ECHO merchants process on the Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO) network. ECHO is a publicly owned company trading on NASDAQ under
the symbol "ECHO". ECHO provides thousands of merchants with reliable processing of bank cards and checks. Merchants are sponsored by FIRST
REGIONAL BANK, Agoura Hills, CA (800-777-0929). Member FDIC.