Free Merchant Account Tip: No to Yahoo Mails?
A lot of customers question the fact that when buying online, some merchants deny them. They get a message saying that ordering using free or anonymous email accounts such as yahoo, gmail, and hotmail is not allowed. Merchants, of course, are already aware that customers ordering through free emails can mean red flag transactions. Way too many frauds happen because of orders taken through free email accounts.
As a merchant, you can do two things: Ignore customers with free email accounts, or process their orders as long as you have done everything you could to verify the buyer's identity. The first option would mean cutting off potential profit coming from 90% of shoppers (of course this is just my exaggerated figure). The second option would be more time and energy consuming and still won't guarantee that the person is a legitimate buyer.
If you do have a policy not to transact free email orders, tell your customers upfront about it. Otherwise, provide a description of security measures and timeline so they know when they can have the products they intend to buy. Just because customers are using free email accounts doesn't mean they're fraudsters. But just because they're using company and paid email accounts doesn't mean they're not stealing identities either.
Free Merchant Account Tip - Offshore Orders Dangerous?
Free Merchant Account Tip - Slow Down an Urgent Purchase