Group ISO's Theodore Svoronos comments in the following Green Sheet article: 

Though e-commerce sales are increasing, 87 percent of merchants surveyed said they will have to fight fraud with the same or less staff in the coming year.

Merchants showed a dramatically increased interest in more sophisticated automation fraud review tools than in previous years.

For each of the past six years, approximately 25 percent of online orders were manually reviewed.

In 2008, merchants accepted a higher percentage of orders, working more aggressively to boost top-line sales. International orders continue to have over three times the fraud risk of orders from the United States and Canada. 

Steady Credit Card Usage

Overall credit card volumes during May were flat–up slightly mm because of seasonality and some sector activity.

• Mom-and-pop and high-end retailers and sit-down restaurant credit card volumes remained weak; healthcare, quick-serve restaurants and online sales were strongest

• Merchant credit card payment transaction costs mostly flat yy, but higher issuers’ credit card fees are expected

• Upgrades and compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards are expected to encourage some higher processing fees

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Group ISO's Theodore Svoronos interviewed in ISO & Agent article. 

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original article 

Group ISO CEC,Theodore Svoronos comments on this "Selling PrePaid" article:

An elaborate gift card scam was recently busted in Sacramento, Calif. Six women – known as the Richmond Girls – were arrested over a period of months for using counterfeit gift cards to purchase more than $1 million in merchandise from "big box" retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area. (for more information, see "$1 million gift card scam busted," SellingPrepaid.com, posted Aug. 6, 2008)

Questions abound as to how the scam was pulled off and what part The Richmond Girls' overseas connections played in it. So SellingPrepaid talked to Theodore Svoronos, Certified Fraud Examiner for Irvine, Calif.-based Group ISO Inc.