Security when shopping from overseas

[ripple]

I want to order something from an England based company but when I inquired if its possible for them to ship to a BFPO number, I was told that although they could indeed ship to a BFPO address, their site would refuse to take the order as it could detect it was coming from overseas.  They were unable to answer why ordering from overseas was a problem.  So, why is that?  I haven't had a problem with other things I've bought over the net and had shipped here.

[sarahA]

We sometimes used to get that when we lived abroad (my Dad was in the RAF) and gave a BFPO number. Shouldn't make any difference as BFPO should be considered to be in London which is why a standard UK postage cost/stamp is all that's needed. The only potential issue is if the system is designed to check for a UK style postcode, but then again, a good postcode checker should detect BFPO X as a valid UK postcode.

The other potential reason is what they're saying is that if you visit the site it'll detect you're not in the UK and think you're trying to defraud the system. Seen it with Nochex once. A client went on holiday to the Cech republic and tried to pay his bill whilst he was there and Nochex refused him access as they just checked his location and said they wouldn't allow payments from the country he was in.

Some sites are too secure for their own good.

[MattC]

Some sites are too secure for their own good.

The problem is the Retailer/Distributor is often the only one that really looses out financially when a transaction turns out to be fraudulent so it very often pays to be quite strict (We are certainly biased towards the stricter side of things when it comes to payments). We are looking at ways to securely take card payments from abroad but for the reason you've stated (Our current card processor is unable to verify a non-uk billing address) we are very reluctant to do so just now.


Matt

[ripple]

Yea, Sarah, its not the shipping that's the problem apparently.  A BFPO address is fine to ship to as far as these retailers are concerned, its just the payment.

But what you and Matt (hello Mr Curry ) say about defrauding must be their reason.  Ok, thanks for that, it makes sense now.

[sarahA]

Some sites are too secure for their own good.

The problem is the Retailer/Distributor is often the only one that really looses out financially when a transaction turns out to be fraudulent so it very often pays to be quite strict (We are certainly biased towards the stricter side of things when it comes to payments). We are looking at ways to securely take card payments from abroad but for the reason you've stated (Our current card processor is unable to verify a non-uk billing address) we are very reluctant to do so just now.

But if I was on holiday, or away on business/work and wanted to buy something from your site to be delivered to my UK home address, surely blocking me because I'm not connecting from the UK but connecting from a specific other country is a bit overly-secure? Wanting it delivered abroad, yes, can understand that, but not if it's to be delivered to the cardholder's address.

[MattC]

Some sites are too secure for their own good.

The problem is the Retailer/Distributor is often the only one that really looses out financially when a transaction turns out to be fraudulent so it very often pays to be quite strict (We are certainly biased towards the stricter side of things when it comes to payments). We are looking at ways to securely take card payments from abroad but for the reason you've stated (Our current card processor is unable to verify a non-uk billing address) we are very reluctant to do so just now.

But if I was on holiday, or away on business/work and wanted to buy something from your site to be delivered to my UK home address, surely blocking me because I'm not connecting from the UK but connecting from a specific other country is a bit overly-secure? Wanting it delivered abroad, yes, can understand that, but not if it's to be delivered to the cardholder's address.

Oh yeah, blocking you because *you are not placing your order within the UK is taking it too far, my system would allow that as long as the billing address was UK based and it matched the payment card.

Sorry if I misunderstood you Sarah.

*Although I have been tempted to block traffic from China in an effort to stop the constant "Dear Mr Matthew, we want to partnership with you wonderful company, we supry you ruvery product rong time" emails

[Steve Lampkins]

*Although I have been tempted to block traffic from China in an effort to stop the constant "Dear Mr Matthew, we want to partnership with you wonderful company, we supry you ruvery product rong time" emails

And as a bonus, no more love letters from Ash.

[sarahA]

Oh yeah, blocking you because *you are not placing your order within the UK is taking it too far, my system would allow that as long as the billing address was UK based and it matched the payment card.

Sorry if I misunderstood you Sarah.

*Although I have been tempted to block traffic from China in an effort to stop the constant "Dear Mr Matthew, we want to partnership with you wonderful company, we supry you ruvery product rong time" emails

Ah no worries It is a bit OTT, but I guess if there are more frauds than true sales, it makes sense to some businesses

[MattC]

*Although I have been tempted to block traffic from China in an effort to stop the constant "Dear Mr Matthew, we want to partnership with you wonderful company, we supry you ruvery product rong time" emails

And as a bonus, no more love letters from Ash.

An added bonus that I'd not considered, thank you Mr Steve