User's Guide

Table Of Contents
Fraud Protection Services User’s Guide 85
Fraud Filter Reference
High-risk Address Filters
A
ZIP Risk List Match Filter
What does the filter do?
This filter compares the Ship To and Bill To ZIP codes (US only) against the high-risk list.
High-risk ZIP codes are determined based on analysis of millions of e-commerce transactions.
The specified action is taken whenever a submitted ZIP code appears in the risk list.
NOTE: Fraud tends to correlate to densely populated areas like major cities. For this reason,
ZIP codes on the risk list will likely correlate to major cities.
How does the filter protect me?
Matching a ZIP code on the risk list does not necessarily indicate a fraudulent purchase, but
that you should evaluate these transactions more closely than other transactions.
USPS Address Validation Failure Filter
What does the filter do?
This filter screens the Ship To and Bill To addresses (street number, street name, state, and
ZIP code) against the United States Postal Service database of existing addresses. The USPS
updates the database continually.
The specified action is taken whenever the address cannot be validated (it does not exist or is
incorrect in some way).
NOTE: The filter does not validate that the person named in the transaction data lives at that
address or even that the address is currently occupied—only that the address exists in
the database.
How does the filter protect me?
To trick a merchant’s filters, fraudsters sometimes deliberately misspell or make up street
names. This enables the fraudster to spoof AVS, geo-location, and high-risk address filters.
You can identify this basic form of spoofing by using the USPS Address Validation filter to
determine whether an address really exists.
NOTE: One useful side effect of the filter is that mis-keyed addresses of legitimate customers
can be identified before shipping.
IP Address Match Filter
What does the filter do?
This filter screens the IP address from which a transaction originates against a list of high-risk
IP addresses. An IP (Internet protocol) address is a unique identifier for a computer on a
TCP/IP network that can identify a particular network and a particular computer on that
network.
NOTE: IP Addresses are not always fixed like the addresses to physical buildings. Some
computers get a new IP address each time they connect to a network. The most general