Merchants Get Proactive Against Chargebacks with SignatureLink's SecureBuy e-Commerce Solutions

RIDGELAND, Miss., June 14, 2012 -- Fraudulent chargebacks persist as a thorn in the side of online businesses. The Credit Research Foundation reports that up to 15% of all invoices are subject to chargebacks, and a 2011 report by Javelin Strategy & Research for LexisNexis reveals online companies pay $2.40 to recover each dollar of chargeback fraud. In "More Anti-Chargeback Firepower" on DigitialTransactions.net, Lauri Giesen emphasizes this disparity, citing Jeff Liesendahl, President of Accertify, a subsidiary of American Express Co., who "estimates that as much as 3% to 4% of retailers' total revenues are consumed with the costs of dealing with chargebacks, and he adds, 'The amount varies like crazy.'"

This essentially adds insult to injury, considering that online merchants already experience fraud at a rate double that of other merchants, according to Javelin's 2010 Identity Fraud Report. Chargebacks amount to billions in losses -- but payment acceptance expert Greg Wooten, CEO of e-commerce stabilizer SignatureLink, Inc., believes that merchants can prevent much of this loss by taking a proactive approach to chargeback fraud.

"Chargeback fraud is not only a drain on merchants' time and revenue," comments Wooten. "Disputes with cardholders over fraudulent transactions can also tarnish brand reputation and have repercussions for banking relationships. Banks take chargebacks very seriously. Having chargeback rates higher than a bank's acceptable threshold may cause a business to lose its account. That has a ripple effect, making it difficult to build relationships with other banks."

By implementing pre-fraud preventative measures, however, merchants can save resources -- and perhaps even their businesses. One of the best fraud deterrents comes down to simple psychology, says Wooten: People think twice before committing a crime if they know they must supply a signature in the process. "Humans generally avoid situations in which they will incriminate themselves, and physically signing one's name as a means of certification during an illegal activity is certainly self-incriminating," Wooten pointed out. Consequently, tools like SignatureLink's SecureBuy(TM) -- a virtual electronic signature pad -- prompt many "would-be fraudsters" to abandon a merchant's site.

In cases where users attempt to defraud a merchant anyway, fraud deterrents like SignatureLink SecureBuy(TM) and SignatureLink TransExam(TM) Chargeback Management System give merchants the forensic proof they need to fight back. SignatureLink solutions integrate with any e-commerce platform. Once installed, SecureBuy captures and securely stores customers' legally binding, wet-equivalent signatures, along with screen shots of everything each customer saw and agreed to during every transaction.

At the same time, SignatureLink SecureBuy tracks site visitors and allows merchants to screen out customers through behavior analysis, device authentication and fingerprinting, true IP/proxy piercing and dynamic risk scoring. Each transaction automatically generates a forensic document the merchant can access as needed to prove that a chargeback is fraudulent.

"Our objective with SignatureLink SecureBuy(TM) and TransExam(TM) is to stabilize e-commerce," said Wooten. "We're finding that legitimate customers are comfortable making purchases from sites with SignatureLink SecureBuy(TM), while those who attempt to engage in e-commerce fraud are often deterred by the virtual electronic signature pad. When fraudulent chargebacks do occur, our merchants are quickly and easily able to produce evidence of exactly what happened during any given transaction, then get back to running their businesses."

About SignatureLink

With its advanced online payment fraud and chargeback management solutions, SignatureLink, Inc. is the e-commerce stabilizer. The company's patented, biometric, wet-signature-equivalent technology has allowed online merchants to accept legally binding electronic signatures since 2005. SignatureLink is led by Greg Wooten, a veteran executive in the emerging technology and financial services industries. Recognized by industry leaders as an e-commerce pioneer and payment acceptance evangelist, Wooten has spoken extensively on the topics of business automation, payment processing, e-commerce and payment fraud prevention for AT&T, Nielson Media, US Financial Services Group, USDT Corporation and the Direct Marketing Association. For more information and to test-drive the SignatureLink CNPS(TM) online signature pad, visit www.signaturelink.com.