"The Banter" A Quarterly Newsletter: Vol. 5, 2nd Quarter :: April 2009

New this Quarter! How to Keep eCommerce Fraud at Bay During Hard Economic Times. xSellit eCommerce Storefront Version 3.4 Now Released! Tech Tips: New "Recession Malware" During these Economic Times Our Clients in the Spotlight: Jan West Art Make Me Laugh NEW: Quote of the Quarter Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted New this Quarter! We have some exciting new announcements this quarter! New xSellit Forum We would like to introduce our new xSellit Forum. This forum is located at http://forum.goxsellit.com. Here, our xSellit clients can post questions to our support staff, request product updates they would like to see in upcoming xSellit Storefront releases, and most importantly discuss ideas with other xSellit clients. This forum is an open forum to all who would like to register. You can ask questions and talk freely with other online business owners and share ideas and tips on running a successful online business. Jobs: Freelance Designers Check out our Jobs section as we are looking for freelance website designers! Please submit your resume along with your portfolio by email to jobs@intersoftgroup.com. xSellit Version 3.4 Now Released! Our latest version of xSellit Storefronts, version 3.4, is now released! We are extremely enthusiastic about this new version! Read more about the new features in this quarter's newsletter. xSellit's April Showers Special This month we are offering our xSellit Storefront Startups a "pick one add-on for free" or "buy all three for $500"! Our Professional & Enterprise packages can receive $500 off the setup price. Again, wishing all of you a great second quarter! Jessica Sudo Business Operations Manager Back to Top How to Keep eCommerce Fraud at Bay During Hard Economic Times. During times of economic hardship, scams, fraud and petty theft tend to be on the rise. We will address some signs of fraud for online businesses to be on the lookout for and some solutions to help prevent it. Fraud: Card-Not-Present. This is the one that is the hardest to detect by online Merchants. Card-Not-Present fraud means that the fraudster has stolen a credit card number and purchased an item(s) for your online storefront using the stolen credit card. Since purchasing items online does not require the physical credit card, it is an easier way for fraudsters to gain the goods. Solution: When a transaction is made on your storefront, check your Credit Card Gateway to make sure the AVS & CVV2 responses have come back successfully. The CVV2 number is the three-digit code on the back of the credit card or the four-digit code on the front of an American Express. AVS is when the credit card's billing address & zip code match what the end user entered upon checkout. If these items match then the chances of it being a fraudulent card are slim to none. Another tip to look for is to make sure the Shipping Address is not being sent to a PO box or an abandoned warehouse. You can use Google Maps Street View to check the shipping address and see if the address resembles an abandoned building. And always, when in doubt call your bank and/or the customer. Fraud: Order Velocities. This is defined as multiple orders that are placed within the same day, hour or minute. They typically come from one IP Address, User ID or credit card. Solution: If you see multiple orders coming in from the same IP Address in your Gateway account you will want to make sure you question the order placement. Also, large order totals coming from a new customer may throw up a red flag. You will want to contact your bank and/or the customer to make sure these are legitimate orders. Fraud: Online Gift Card. This type of fraud is used in conjunction with fake, free email accounts. When you purchase an online gift certificate the confirmation code is sent to an email address. The fraudster would then purchase a gift certificate (usually more than one) with a fraudulent credit card. The confirmation codes are then automatically sent to the email addresses listed. Solutions: The free email account services usually represent a higher percentage of fraudulent activity than those email addresses associated with a company or paid Internet Service. So, the best thing would be to monitor the credit card charge to make sure there are no chargebacks issued, verify the AVS & CVV2 responses and also contact your bank and/or the customer. There will always be fraud. The best way to controlling fraudulent charges is to be conscious of who and where you are shipping your items too. You will want to analyze all orders and investigate them if they seem suspicious in order to protect your customers and your company. Back to Top xSellit eCommerce Storefront Version 3.4 Now Released! Just released is our latest version of xSellit eCommerce Storefront. The new upgrades will help online retailers comply with manufacturer's regulations and give them more tools to successfully sell online. Other changes have made the xSellit product more efficient for the xSellit Retailer, thus saving them time & money. As we constantly strive to make xSellit Storefront the most Search Engine Friendly eCommerce product on the market, we have made further SEO (Search Engine Optimization) changes per requests from our SEO partners. The new changes now allow all pages within the xSellit Storefront system to have optimized content and updateable META tags. A link summary block has been added to the entire frame of the xSellit site allowing for more SEO optimized text. Google Analytics and Google eCommerce Tracking has also been added to the Storefront which is extremely helpful in tracking your Pay-Per-Clicks. The displaying of discounts on the receipts has been reworked. Now the retail price and the purchased price will be shown, along with a "You Saved" label. This makes the receipts more user-friendly to the online consumer. xSellit retailers now have more flexibility in the way they display certain items on a product's "More Information" page. The ability to "hide" products and categories within the xSellit system has also been added. A product keyword field for each product listing has been added which will make searching for products easier for the online consumer. An "Add to Cart for Pricing" option has been added which will allow xSellit retailers to comply with certain manufacturer's regulations. This feature will force the online consumer to add the product to the cart before seeing the price of the product. A "Call for Pricing" option has been added so that custom products can be displayed without having a price shown. The promotion codes now have the ability to give a category (or categories) discount. Editing the billing & shipping information during the checkout process has been made easier for the online consumer. A Continue Shopping button has been added to the confirmation & payment screen allowing the online consumer to easily go back to your storefront to purchase more items. A full-blown Wholesaler system has been integrated into xSellit Storefront. This system now allows xSellit Retailers to turn off public pricing on their storefront. Allowing only logged in users to see the pricing and buy online. The xSellit Storefront is now able to act as a catalog system for the non-logged in users. Price levels per customer and special pricing per customer per product is now available. The special pricing function overrides xSellit system pricing, allowing the xSellit Retailers to offer each of their customer's unique pricing per product for buying incentives. Quantity discounts are available as well, which will allow for 5 ranges of products sold in grouped quantities with discounted totals. Quantity discounts are great for those xSellit Retailers who sell items in bulk. xSellit's order handling system has been improved to allow for easier and timely order management. Editing an order's billing & shipping address and updating the items purchased are just a few of the improvements that were made. xSellit retailers will now have the choice to print out packing slips for each order directly out of the xSellit Storefront system. Retailers now are able to set the shipping status, enter in a tracking number for shipped orders and email a standard message (which can also be customized) to the order recipient, all on one screen! Need to take phone orders? No, problem! New in this release is the ability to take a phone order right from your administration screen! www.goxsellit.com Back to Top Tech Tips: New "Recession Malware" During these Economic Times Virus', worms and malware are nothing new to the Internet. However a new generation of malware is on the rise and has been dubbed "Recession Malware". This new malware tries to exploit people's financial and job woes and is attacking consumers and businesses alike. We will list some of the newest, and some resurrected schemes, flying around the Internet and making its way into your Inboxes: The Money Scam With money being tight these days these types of emails are scheming innocent people out of their money. Let's look at the email with the Subject of, "RE YOUR INHERITANCE FUNDS". The email states: "ADDRESS: WARK BRIDGE, SE 19 HL UNITED KINGDOM PHONE NUMBER: +44-702402658 I wish to notify you again that you were listed as a beneficiary to the total sum of GBP £11.2000,000.00 (Million pounds sterling ) in the codicil and last testament of the deceased (Name now withheld since this is my second letter to you). Please follow this link to claim your inheritance." The link may open up to a website form asking for personal information such as your Social Security number, bank account number and birth date. This scam is similar to the Nigerian 519 scams, where the email claimed to be from Nigerian officials and sent to recipients who would receive millions of dollars if they sent an "advance fee" to help them. The people would send the scammers money and sometimes even more money at a later date only to never receive a penny back. The Job Scam With unemployment rates on the rise people are more likely to open email messages offering job openings or online applications. Take the email with the Subject, "Shipping coordinator needed in U.S. for overseas company". The email reads: "Make US $40,000 a year managing our orders from your home. You must have an e-mail account." What's so wrong with this email? Well, once replied to the scammers will ask for your bank account number and other personal information. If the information is given you may have just gotten involved in an illegal money laundering scheme from criminals from other countries. The Brand Confusion Scam Since bank mergers and buyouts have been happening more lately, scams that request you to re-setup your account are on the rise. An example would be the Merrill Lynch email with the subject, "Merrill Lynch account verification". It states: "Dear Merrill Lynch customer, Due to the recent acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, your Merrill Lynch account must be reestablished. Please click this link to reestablish your Merrill Lynch account." Once you click on the link you are taken to a website that may ask for confidential personal information or you may download a virus, keylogger, Trojan, worm, etc without your knowledge. The Stimulus Scam The Federal Trade Commission is warning about a group of economic stimulus scams. These scams are emails promising stimulus money by entering in your bank or credit card numbers. The Keeping You Safe "Scam" For most of these scams to work you must click on the links referenced in the email. Thus the best way to avoid these scams is to not click the links. However, there will always be new victims who have not yet learned about these types of scams. So, here are some other ways of protecting yourself. If you receive an email from a company about a job you should contact the company's human resource department to follow up on your application or the email in question. Do not pay attention to the sender's email address. The "From" email addresses can easily be spoofed to be from anyone. Read the email messages carefully. If you see choppy English or too good to be true benefits, then that's your tip off that it is most likely a scam. Verify the person. If you are receiving an email asking for personal information from banks, government, credit card companies, etc. always call them to verify the message. Keep up-to-date on the latest news about virus and scams. If you want to protect yourself from the every changing technology world you will want to make sure you keep up with the latest technology threats. You can also always get a second opinion on a message's legitimacy. Other people may know if there is a scam going around. Make sure you run your computer, antivirus & antispam updates and that you have a firewall installed. This can never be stressed enough! Web browsers have more security tools built-in to help prevent phishing attempts, blocking keyloggers, etc. If you have a tech question that you would like us to write about email us at techtips@intersoftgroup.com. Back to Top Our Clients in the Spotlight: Jan West Art Website: http://www.janwestsart.com Jan West is an artist who specializes in mandalas, organic abstract paintings, murals, force field photography, and commercial photography. She uses paint and photography to explore archetypal, spiritual and cross cultural themes and to tell the stories of the ages. Back to Top Make Me Laugh We will feature a new comic every quarter that'll be sure to make you laugh! Back to Top Quote of the Quarter "I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars; I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over." ~ Warren Buffett Back to Top Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted Intersoft is looking for qualified Sales Applicants to join our Group! If you know of anyone looking for a Sales position that you feel would be a good fit with our company please have them check out our job description at: http://www.intersoftgroup.com/jobs/jobs.aspx All qualified sales applicants can email their resume to: jobs@intersoftgroup.com Freelance Website Design Position Wanted Intersoft is looking for qualified freelance website designers to join our Group! If you know of anyone looking for a part-time position that you feel would be a good fit with our company please have them contact us. All qualified applicants can email their resume and link to their online portfolio to: jobs@intersoftgroup.com Back to Top