Curiouser and Curiouser! on fraud http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic fraud Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Banks hang the merchants out to dry Mon, 16 May 2005 20:11:52 +0100 <p>Is there anyone who thinks banks aren't a bunch of sharp practice merchants who exploit their position to screw everyone (and then bleat loudly enough to get bailed out with taxpayers money if anything does go wrong)?</p> <p>Via Mary Hodder a <a href="http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/000452.html">story</a> of a pro-active merchant who tried to do something about credit card fraud. He thought he had his bank on his side but it would appear they hung him out to dry when it didn't go to plan.</p> <p><blockquote><p>He called his bank, which had helped him engineer his credit card fraud solution in the first place, and demanded it not charge him this fee. Greenhome had been proactive, trying to help prevent fraud, he argued. Yet his bank refused to let him off the hook.</p> <p>Comras' theory is, "It's possible that the banks have done the calculus and it's more in their interest to force the merchants to put whatever they want through because the banks can charge more when there is not a match." What he means is that the banks charge a slightly higher rate for transactions when the zip code doesn't match, yet they don't inform the merchants.</p> <p>In other words, the banks don't care, since they make more money on fraudulent transactions anyway.</p></blockquote></p> <p><strong>Banks make money on fraudulent transactions.</strong> Need we go on?</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002617.html