Payment Responsibilties for the Agent

Payment Responsibilities and How to Mitigate Fraud

Booking airfare through AFCNet is easy, and we want to keep it that way, but we need to work together to make this happen.  

As you are probably aware, fraud is a key consideration in the Travel Industry.  While it doesn’t happen often, it can and does happen if we all don’t take the proper actions to prevent and protect ourselves.

1. We provide a secure process and environment for payment  
2. We vet and certify our members/users of the site
3. We research and evaluate each card and cardholder
4. We use a payment processor that evaluates each transaction using a fraud prevention engine
5. We notify you the same day if there is any issue with card processing

1. Exercise due diligence in selecting your clients
2. Verify the cardholder’s identity and signature in advance. Discussing payments early in your process with them provides comfort to your customers, and deters those trying to defraud you.
3. Take extra caution with customers who are in a rush, want to depart within 48 hours, have an unidentified cardholder paying for their trip, or can’t answer simple questions about payments. You don’t want to be left having to pay for their ticket.
4. Understand that simply submitting a card to AFCNet does not guarantee ticketing. We need to do our due diligence too.
5. Secure proper authorization from the cardholder for the transaction:
   1. Use ARC’s guide to Travel Agency Payment Card Acceptance.
   2. Try to avoid accepting a 3rd party credit card if at all possible.
   3. Does their email address make sense? Does it include their name or something that indicates an established email account?
   4. Get the cardholder’s billing address. Make sure it is a real address. Use Google, click on the street view. Does it make sense?
   5. Get the cardholder’s phone number. Is it a working phone number? Be aware of the risks of VoIP phone numbers.
   6. Try to find the cardholder on social media – are they associated with the passengers? Does their story make sense?
   7. Verify cardholder name and address directly:
      1. Visa 800-847-2911 (choose Merchant option, #2 for all other inquiries)
      2. Mastercard 800-247-4623
      3. Amex 800-528-2121
      4. Enter the card number. They will not disclose any cardholder information but they should allow you to give them what you have and they will tell you if it’s a match.
   8. Obtain a credit card charge form for each transaction, signed by the cardholder
   9. Be sure to review the penalties that could be incurred for changes and cancellation, and EXPLAIN them to your client.
6. Understand that we may request more information, a copy of the charge form, or other items to help mitigate risk of fraud.