AVS Credit Checks

Apparently the Obama Campaign has noticed.

NR reader "Borat Oblama" writes:

I tried to donate $5 in the name of "Borat Oblama" from "Madeuptown, USA", using a legit credit card number, and got a screen saying the card didn't match the address.

Apparently they've been shamed into reinstating the security checks.

Pity we didn't figure this out in August. That 600 mil he's got in the bank might be a lot lighter. Meanwhile, a gentleman from a credit card processing company elucidates:

So let's lay out a hypothetical situation. You're in a business that takes payments. You expect some level of outright credit card fraud. Those transactions will be charged back, and you will owe fees on them, unless you use AVS [Address Verification Service] to prevent them. You also have a substantial number of customers who for whatever reason wish to remain anonymous. Your anonymous customers won't do business with you if you use AVS, but you're confident that this set of customers will not dispute their charges. The calculus is simple. If the revenues you expect from anonymous customers exceeds the fees you expect to pay from cardholder disputes leading to chargebacks, then the smart business decision is to turn off AVS.

 

Now if it's against the law for customers to do business with you anonymously, then facilitating anonymous transactions goes beyond just being a business decision. But if the consequences of looking the other way are no more than having to refund the money several months down the road, then maybe you're happy to take the money as an interest free loan in the meantime.

And as near as I can tell, the "interest free loan" option is all we can expect to see in the way of enforcement.