Blog

Rise in Transaction Laundering Hate Groups

Tensions in America rise as the pandemic-fueled economic recession sweeps the nation. Hate groups are among many bad actors who are taking advantage of the current social and political turmoil by peddling violence, misinformation, and fraudulent products online. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly 1,000 hate groups were located in the United States… read more

Post Date: Posted on September 10, 2020April 20, 2021 Post Categories: Hate Groups, Merchant Fraud, Transaction Laundering

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

The Online Sale of Designer Goods — A Quick Overview for the Payments Industry

Here at G2, we get a lot of questions about the online sale of designer goods to US consumers. For example: Who can legally sell these goods online? Are online consignment shops legal? When boarding a merchant, how can I tell if the website sells counterfeit goods or the real thing? To help answer these… read more

Post Date: Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 Post Categories: Authorized Resellers, Designer Goods, Intellectual Property, Merchant Fraud

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

UK’s Food Standards Agency Offers Concrete Guidance on CBD

In January 2019, the European Commission confirmed that CBD is considered a “novel food” in the EU.  A “novel food” is defined as “food that had not been consumed to a significant degree by humans in the EU before 15 May 1997.” Why is this important? Because “novel foods” must be authorized by the European… read more

Post Date: Posted on February 19, 2020April 16, 2020 Post Categories: CBD International Laws, CBD Laws, CBD Merchant Risk

FDA Cracks Down on CBD Merchants

Last week, the FDA took off the gloves in its fight against illicit CBD products. The agency updated its consumer advisory on CBD to warn of possible negative side effects and issued 15 warning letters to CBD companies – which is more CBD-related warning letters than the FDA has issued in the past three years…. read more

Post Date: Posted on December 3, 2019April 16, 2020 Post Categories: CBD Laws, CBD Merchant Risk, FDA Warning Letters