Criminals are thinking as fast as tech developers are; which is a challenge to the business owner who must stay updated or risk getting exposed to crime. And as you read this, the latest and most lethal way tricksters are using to attack merchants is via a new trick known as transaction laundering. And mark you; is not like chargebacks which you can cover with the help of chargeback insurance providers.
Discover the truth behind transaction or merchant account laundering and how you can protect your business from such attacks.
What’s Transaction Laundering?
Merchant account laundering is more or less a new-age form of money laundering, something more advanced than the old schemes. Of course, in some cases, the merchant is part of the deceitful scheme, but most times that’s not the case.
Time and again, cybercriminals take advantage of legal merchant sites like yours to initiate their illegal transactions behind your back. At times, the breach occurs through the affiliates you work with to drive revenue & traffic to your website.
How Merchant account Laundering occurs
To get a vivid picture of how affiliate transaction laundering takes place; imagine that one of your web-based affiliates trades illegal drugs online, is desperately looking for a legitimate legal way to get the money he makes. So he markets the drugs via his website and then spends the dirty money to purchase content on your site consequently receiving a pay-per-performance fee from you.
And the worst part; you risk being held liable on both civil & criminal levels if your company site facilitates such crimes.
How to stay safe from deceitful Affiliates
While having affiliates can make you real money, you also need to be careful about the kinds of risk that business relationship could expose your company to. You obviously can’t stay away from them because not all the cash is acquired scrupulously. Therefore it’s smarter to protect yourself from crooked affiliates rather than give up the entire idea of affiliate marketing.
Always carry out a thorough secret review on all affiliates before you strike a deal with them. You should also keep monitoring them throughout the period you work together to ensure that all content, as well as the advertisements they post, are real.
Pay attention to how all your affiliates advertise & market their products, ensuring that you don’t relate with irrelevant items.
Do your homework! Be sure to work only with trustworthy affiliate networks.
Also, draft a clear and precise affiliate policy and be strict on in its implementation. If you feel, for whatever reason that an affiliate is fraudulent, put an end to the business partnership.
Conclusion
Don’t let your micro-business become a victim of merchant account money laundering or you risk answering to a lawsuit that may threaten your bottom line.
Author Bio: Electronic payments expert Blair Thomas co-founded eMerchantBroker, serving both traditional and high-risk merchants; and one of the largest chargeback insurance providers. His passions include producing music, and traveling.
