Please be aware of a phishing attempt that involves merchants using Sage Pay. Emails were sent with what appears to be a Word document attached, from the email address accounting@morephotos.com.

The content of the email is as follows:

Canadian merchants processing with Elavon have typically been restricted to a specific processing format with American Express. But they are now able to enjoy the convenience of a more streamlined program.  There are four main benefits for merchants that choose to enroll:

A Consolidated Statement

One benefit of the new program is a single statement for all credit card transactions. By contrast, the previous program issued a statement for Visa, Mastercard and Discover, while American Express was separate. Aside from convenience, this also has several ramifications for merchants in terms of fees and receipt of funds.

Kosherfest is an annual trade show where the global kosher industry does business. From chain supermarkets to corner groceries, food service establishments to caterers, kosher decision makers gather to find opportunity at Kosherfest.  Fidelity Payment Services has established a highly anticipated presence at the show, where they meet their kosher clientele to give them premiere payment advice from industry experts. This year, Fidelity plans to treat its visitors to a complimentary professional shoe shine at Booth 137.

More Kosherfest vendors are clients of Fidelity Payments for their payment needs than any other payments company. Food-related companies, in particular, have an innate nature to appreciate low prices, value, and service. We are proud to be the payment processor of choice for so many Kosherfest participants.

As a reminder, terminals must be manually adjusted for Daylight Savings. For most US states, the clocks move forward at 2 AM on the second Sunday of March, and they revert back on the first Sunday of November at 2 AM.

Click here for instructions on how to adjust the time on the most popular terminals. We’ve also put together a short video which demonstrates how to set the times on the PX S80 and VX520, featuring Johany and Victor from our Technical Support team.

Fraud has escalated this year to nearly $22 billion in losses globally. In other words, for every $100 spent, 6.97 cents was fraudulent, compared to 6.21 cents the year before. The Nilson Report, the top newsletter covering the payment industries, put together the specific fraud metrics. 

According to their report, if the global fraud rate was a pie, the US has the largest slice. The United States alone accounted for nearly 40 percent of the gross fraud losses, even though they only generated 22.9 percent of global purchase volume.  Simply put, for every $100 spent in the US last year, 11.76 cents was fraudulent. 

This October marked the one-year anniversary of the EMV liability shift, an essential but challenging process that rocked the payments industry. On the one hand, it reduced retail fraud significantly. However, some consumers felt that it hampered the checkout experience, at least initially.

Consumers and merchants have had a year to adjust to the change. This October 21st was the next milestone in the battle against payment fraud, the liability shift for ATM machines.   ATM owners are now required to be EMV-enabled to avoid chargeback liability.

Hint: It all comes down to checkout.

The retail customer relationship begins the moment a customer walks into your store and is cultivated during the shopping process with item selection, pricing, customer service and even store layout.  However, what truly seals the deal is the checkout process. Having a streamlined and efficient checkout is not only a key component of closing the sale but maintaining and cultivating customer relationships. 

Here are four key factors to consider when evaluating your checkout process:

The Wait Time

Customers can buy anything online in seconds, so they are much less willing to wait in line in the store. A long wait at checkout creates a negative impression; it’s the last thing customers remember before they leave.  A payment and point-of-sale system that is optimized for your particular establishment can significantly cut wait times and increase checkout efficiency.

As a business owner, you are no doubt aware that accepting credit cards is a key component of doing business. Hardly anyone carries cash or checks anymore, so a business that does not accept cards is likely to lose customers to other businesses that do. However, opting to accept credit cards meaning paying processing fees for those transactions.  In a business with a tight profit margin, like a coffee shop where most transactions are $10 or less, those fees can add up over the course of a month and take a big chunk out of profits.

Many businesses simply accept these fees as a cost of doing business, and customers are unaware as they casually swipe their cards. But a growing number of merchants are frustrated to keep paying credit card processing fees and are looking at ways to pass them onto their customers.

If you’re processing credit cards, you’ve most likely heard of PCI compliance. What is it and how do you become compliant? We’ll walk you through it.

What is PCI?

The Payment Card Industry Security Standard is a set of guidelines that protect merchant and cardholder security.  If a merchant intends to accept card payments, the data must be hosted securely with an approved provider.

Online merchants become more at-risk for online fraud each year, making fraud detection and prevention a vital component of successful business.

The average number of successful fraudulent transactions grew 32.1% in 2015, with retailers reporting an average of 206 fraudulent transactions per month compared to 156 in 2014. Retailer’s prevention efforts simply aren’t keeping up with the growth in fraud.

What most merchants don’t know is that there are some powerful tools that come with most payment gateways. These tools can be used to gather information about an order to make an informed decision about whether or not to process the payment and ship an orders that may be potentially fraudulent.

You’ve no doubt had this experience: you’re checking out at a store and are asked for your ID at checkout when you use a credit card, perhaps if the purchase is over a certain amount. You might even have a policy about this at your own store.

Is it legal for businesses to ask for ID?

Yes, it is absolutely legal. However, card networks have rules that stores must abide by when it comes to dealing with verification. These rules vary depending on whether or not a signature appears on the back of the card.

Visa & Mastercard’s policy is that if the card is unsigned, the merchant must ask that the card be signed and that the customer provide government ID. If the card is signed, the merchant is not allowed to require ID.

Visa’s policy is that “merchants cannot as part of their regular card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID.”  Visa’s advice to merchants: if a cardholder looks suspicious, the merchant should make a Code 10 authorization request call that alerts the card issuer to suspicious activity without alerting the customer.

“A merchant must not refuse to complete a transaction solely because a cardholder refuses to provide additional identification information,” says MasterCard.  It even has a special page on its website that cardholders can report to them when merchants do this.