IBill new scrubbing policy
 

From CMI:

CVV2 Implementation

As part of our ongoing effort to communicate business-critical issues to you, we feel it necessary to notify you of the following:

We have communicated to you the importance of taking all available measures at our disposal to reduce fraudulent online transactions. Despite greater attention and resources allocated to the issue, the number of fraudulent transactions in the online industry continues to rise. This results in a higher number of chargebacks, a reduction in the quality of transactions and reduced revenues to you.

In an effort to reduce fraud, and the resulting chargebacks, to the lowest possible levels, we are instituting a CVV2 (Card Verification Value 2) requirement as part of the sign-up procedure for online transactions. This requirement will now apply to domestic transactions charged to a VISA card and will be incorporated into the purchase process early in the week of May 5, 2003. This requirement is already in place on all international and MasterCard transactions. CVV2 verification utilizes a unique encrypted 3-digit value that is encoded in the magnetic stripe and printed on the back of a card. It is used as an additional means of cardholder verification during the authorization process.

Given that CVV2 information will now be a required field during the sign-up process, a missing or incorrect value will result in a declined transaction. It is therefore possible that you may experience a higher decline rate after this requirement is implemented. It is our belief that most of these declines are fraudulent in nature and will result in fewer chargebacks, reduced chargeback-associated costs and greater control before you grant access to your content.

Fraudulent credit card charges is an issue that has a negative impact on the entire industry. iBill has been an industry leader in its anti-fraud efforts and will continue to resource this effort to the highest possible degree. Our goals remain consistent with yours related to this issue: less fraudulent transactions and a reduction in the number of chargebacks and the resulting revenue loss that accompanies them. Should you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact our client service department at 800.764.4266 (US) or 954.363.4931(International). Thank you for the confidence you?ve shown us as your processor. We appreciate your business.

End of original text

No one new signup since May 1st for us? Only rebills.
WTF with new IBill scrubbing policy?

My understanding is that this is starting tomorrow for USA source cards. Is this correct?

Considering there are almost no cards still in circulation that don't have a CVV2 I don't see this being an issue.

But I wonder what else is going to happen along with this...I find it a little unsettling that they mention there may be a greater decline rate. My sites have very very little fraud as it is, and I hope they don't penalize us and others by tightening the scrub along with implementing CVV2. The reason that I and most others have stayed with Ibill is that they currently have the best scrub in the business.

One thing I have been hearing from my clients is an increasing incidence of them getting "incorrect IP" declines when trying to join. It looks like they are geo checking IP's during signup, but their database is faulty.

I haven't noticed anything unusual since May 1 though.

Have the other processors (epoch, ccbill, jettis) been CVV2 verification for domestic visa's?

WG

I think CCBill have had it in place since sometime last year. We moved on from CCBill when the Visa regs changed and I'm sure the CV2 number field was appearing on our sign-up page for some months before that.

We offer CCV2 at the merchant's discretion. They can chosse to have it a reqired field, optional field, or not at all. Conversions are definitelty worse with CVV2 enforcement, but the fraud is less too.

I recommend it as an optional field, unless the merchant is getting a high rate of ccrd fraud.

Mitch

hmm... i think i received an email from ccBill a few days ago stating that they were launching their new java-based web admin system on the 5th as well... any correlation here, or just a coincidence..?