Blog Category: Merchant Risk

New Nicotine Regulations May Affect Payment Providers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hints that it may increase its nicotine regulations after electronic cigarette enterprise, Juul Labs, Inc. hooked a generation on vaping.  Last month, the FDA ordered all currently marketed Juul products to be removed from the U.S. market. The agency determined there is not enough evidence to “assess the… read more

Post Date: Posted on July 25, 2022 Post Categories: FDA, Merchant Monitoring, Merchant Risk

Free Trial Offers, Negative Option Billing, and Bogus Celebrity Endorsements

Websites touting phony celebrity endorsements — usually accompanied by “free” trial offers and ongoing monthly subscription plans—are rampant. Fraudsters peddle “miracle” weight loss products, age-defying cosmetics, and get-rich-quick schemes using images of Dr. Oz, Oprah Winfrey, Paula Deen, and others. These deceptive sales tactics are often accompanied by negative option billing and (for the consumer)… read more

Post Date: Posted on August 19, 2020April 21, 2021 Post Categories: Deceptive Marketing, Merchant Risk, Negative Option Marketing

Magento 1 EOL: How to Avoid Card-harvesting Malware Breaches in Your Portfolio

Magento 1 e-commerce websites are easy malware targets and among the biggest potential liabilities in any payment provider’s portfolio—and the threat is about to get worse. What is happening? Effective June 30, 2020, Adobe Magento will end support for the Magento Commerce 1 platform. Magento 1 websites will no longer receive vendor-supplied security patches. Visa… read more

Post Date: Posted on June 2, 2020June 4, 2020 Post Categories: Data Breaches, High-risk Merchants, Merchant Fraud, Merchant Onboarding, Merchant Risk

Nutraceutical Marketing and Regulatory Risk

When onboarding a nutraceutical merchant, how do you know which claims are compliant versus which claims cross the line? Obviously, a dietary supplement cannot be marketed with claims to miraculously cure COVID-19, but can it be marketed to relieve joint pain? Or reduce inflammation? What if the merchant’s website is claim-free, but its social media includes claims to help treat hypertension? Can a merchant… read more

Post Date: Posted on May 18, 2020July 7, 2020 Post Categories: Blog, False Claims, FDA, Merchant Risk, Misleading Marketing Claims, Nutraceuticals, Problematic Health Claims

Merchant Boarding: The Secret to Automated KYC

From gaps in healthcare delivery to supply-chain bottlenecks, the pandemic has illuminated shortfalls in many established in-house systems. For payment providers, pivoting to a remote workforce introduces additional risk into the critical Know Your Customer (KYC) component of the merchant boarding and underwriting process.     Automated KYC Risk professionals know that manual KYC due… read more

Post Date: Posted on April 15, 2020October 26, 2020 Post Categories: Know Your Customer, Merchant Boarding, Merchant Risk, Merchant Underwriting

Dramatic Rise in COVID-19 Related Scams

As COVID-19 engulfs the US, increasing numbers of unethical internet merchants are targeting consumers who are homebound, anxious—and online. According to DomainTools, over 100,000 high-risk coronavirus-related domain names have been created since January.   G2 analyzed these domain names and looked for trends. We found the following:   Exponential Growth In the months of January and… read more

Post Date: Posted on April 3, 2020June 11, 2021 Post Categories: High-risk Merchants, Merchant Fraud, Merchant Risk, Merchant Underwriting, Misleading Marketing Claims

Coronavirus Scammers Target Vulnerable Consumers

While COVID-19 spreads worldwide and panicked consumers rush to acquire pandemic essentials, scammers are out in full force. In the past few weeks, G2 has seen a dramatic increase in healthcare-related scams, especially in the following categories:   Protective Face Masks Face mask fraud is rampant, as bad actors attempt to take advantage of vulnerable… read more

Post Date: Posted on March 19, 2020April 16, 2020 Post Categories: False Claims, High-risk Merchants, Merchant Fraud, Merchant Risk

Merchant Risk and Weight Loss Scams

Weight loss scams come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – pun intended! In addition to causing consumer harm, these boondoggles lead to chargebacks, regulatory scrutiny, and brand-damaging publicity. Here at G2, we keep an eye out for all types of merchant risk, including the following: Misleading Claims The FTC warns third parties to… read more

Post Date: Posted on June 20, 2019February 14, 2020 Post Categories: Merchant Risk, Misleading Business Models, Misleading Marketing Claims, Negative Option Marketing

Transaction Laundering and Negative Option Scams

The war against transaction laundering continues! The latest battle involves “negative option” sales, where a seller treats a consumer’s silence (that is, their failure to reject an offer) as consent to be charged for goods and services. See 16 C.F.R. § 310.2(w). Where a seller fails to meet federally-mandated disclosure, consent, and cancellation requirements, negative… read more

Post Date: Posted on June 12, 2019February 14, 2020 Post Categories: Merchant Risk, Negative Option Marketing, Transaction Laundering

3 MAC Conference Highlights for Payment Players

Recently, payment industry experts gathered at the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee (MAC) Level Up conference to discuss hot topics, industry news, and exciting solutions. In its 11th year, the MAC conference — which has now extended to four days — showcased educational sessions led by 55 speakers representing all corners of the payments industry. Below are… read more

Post Date: Posted on April 29, 2019April 22, 2021 Post Categories: Merchant Fraud, Merchant Risk