ScopesAndAmmo.com credit card processing Notice

Just posting this so anyone who sees it here will have some background;

Credit card fraud is apparently on the rise (again). The banks/credit card issuers are not doing anything to enforce/prosecute credit card fraudsters- so it keeps growing.

We have been "hit" twice in the last 2 weeks with "chargebacks" from what were, according to the card issuers, stolen credit cards. The crooks are getting smarter and only putting through small-ish orders to keep scrutiny down- but the problem is a cardholder can dispute a charge weeks after it occurs- so we may be having alot more losses as a result.

As a result, we are no longer be accepting credit card payments from card issuers (banks) that do not participate in the Address Verification System protocols. What this is, for anyone unaware, is when you put through an online transaction, the shipping address must match the address on the credit card billing statement. If it does not, and the bank subscribes to the AVS system, the charge may be rejected by them- but will most certainly be rejected by us (we have done this in the past)- however, some banks do not allow for this 'verification' and an order could therefore be shipping to the opposite end of the country of where the cardholder resides- i.e. easy fraud potential. As we cannot scrutinize such orders, we took the position of "trust" and allowed such charges to be accepted- but we can no longer afford to do so.

As an 'FYI', all the major Canadian Banks- i.e. the CIBC's, RBC's, etc. do subscribe/use the AVS system, but many of the smaller or regional banks (i.e. HBC, Caisses DesJardins and so on) do not. If you have a card issued by such a (smaller) institution, until they implement the AVS system (it does not cost them anything, so why they have not implemented it defies common sense) we will not be able to accept payments using these cards.

Anyways, just thought I should post this, more for the purposes of pointing people here who try to purchase things from the website and don't fully understand why their order is rejected- not because I have ever had such problems with legitimate members of this, or any other, online forum.