Business Slovenia and Chargeback/Fraud Risk

[JesseQuinn]

hey y'all,

I have a question about the country of Slovenia and credit card fraud/chargeback (cb) risk

On my sites I target english-speaking nations so I've never encountered this issue before:

I've been contacted by a peer who would like to join my site. She's Slovenian which isn't an issue at all, however she apparently has quite a few Slovenian clients that she'd like to bring to the site.

Thus far I've blocked all nations that are considered highest risk (with the exception of Malaysia cuz I have quite a few long time regs from there) and now I'm considering unblocking Slovenia so that my peer can join my site along with her clients.

My concern is obviously fraud/cb risk- I've never had a cb as a merchant and I'd like to keep it that way so I'm hoping to hear from some of y'all who have experience with this. I'm not so concerned about her current clients (she has a track record with them) but rather any new visitors from Slovenia that find the site and make payments

I've done some reading today and seem to be finding to entirely opposite perspectives: the first that Slovenia is uber-high risk, the second that 'high risk' nations lists should be taken with a grain of salt cuz the US considers everything outside of North America 'high risk'

Does anyone here process credit card transactions originating from Slovenia, and if so did you notice a rise in fraud/cb's when doing so?

thanks in advance for any info/advice anyone has to provide

[PornDude]

Is she joining via affiliate link?

If answer is NO, I can't see a reason why would you be worried.

Everybody can chargback. Slovenia is part of European Union.

[JesseQuinn]

^^^thanks for your reply

no, it's not an affiliate situation, rather she's be an independent contractor on my site, using my payment processing on my domain

your perspective is in keeping with half of what I've been reading online; that Slovenia is a modern, developed nation no different than any of the western Euro nations from which I currently accept credit cards payments, I'm just concerned because of the other half of what I read (which basically positions the nation as a hotbed of fraud)

if any one else has any experience processing credit card payments originating from Slovenia I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience of doing so

thanks again for your reply PikaPoka

[Bladewire]

Slovenia is usually blocked for it's high rate of fraud. Here is the list of high fraud countries most people block:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia.

[Horatio Caine]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

Slovenia is usually blocked for it's high rate of fraud. Here is the list of high fraud countries most people block:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia.

Japan? I will take all of your Japanese traffic

Country of Kaliningrad?

[greg80]

I would not consider it a high CB risk country. Most people do not know that thay can even charge something back and banks don't just refund transactions. There is a lot of proof needed for a bank to make a CB, you can't just call them and demand it. I don't exactly understand what it is you are doing, but Slovenia is not a high CB/fraud rate country.

[lagcam]

I would not be focusing so much of the Slovenian aspect, more about the person bringing these Slovenians to you and the reason why.

Unless you know the person well, it could be a risk, I would be asking how these Slovenian clients normally pay her.... and why she has the need to suddenly share the money with you by passing it through your business.

There are actually a few chargeback free methods of payment in Europe including for example paysafecard. That is available in Slovenia I believe but I have never had a sign up through that from there personally.

[JesseQuinn]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

Slovenia is usually blocked for it's high rate of fraud. Here is the list of high fraud countries most people block:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia.

yeah, I know it's termed high risk, my question was more about the realistic level of risk attached to accepting clients from the nation, as so much of what I read online was contradictory. thanks for taking the time to post, I appreciate it

Originally Posted by Horatio Caine

Country of Kaliningrad

so it's a city, not a nation, I still appreciate the feedback

Originally Posted by greg80

I would not consider it a high CB risk country. Most people do not know that thay can even charge something back and banks don't just refund transactions. There is a lot of proof needed for a bank to make a CB, you can't just call them and demand it. I don't exactly understand what it is you are doing, but Slovenia is not a high CB/fraud rate country.

thanks for that, and what you posted matches every other opinion I've solicited from pay site owners and payment processing company employees; namely that the term 'high risk' and actual high risk are often two separate things. thanks for taking the time to post, much appreciated

Originally Posted by lagcam

I would not be focusing so much of the Slovenian aspect, more about the person bringing these Slovenians to you and the reason why.

Unless you know the person well, it could be a risk, I would be asking how these Slovenian clients normally pay her.... and why she has the need to suddenly share the money with you by passing it through your business.

There are actually a few chargeback free methods of payment in Europe including for example paysafecard. That is available in Slovenia I believe but I have never had a sign up through that from there personally.

Really good points, thank you! In the case of my site it's not at all unusual that she's approached me, as I actively advertise my site in the community in which we both participate, and while we're not 'friends' per se she's a peer that I know from around the net and I have no concerns about her legitimacy.

She's actually thus far been using Paysafecard with Neteller with her clients, the issue for her is that her volume of business exceeds the limits imposed by the services. She also wants to branch out to clients outside of Slovenia, and most clients in North America (for example) aren't familiar with Paysafecard.

Thanks again each of you for taking the time to post, it's much appreciated and you've given me a lot to think about and research. Based on the totality of what I've read here and on the other board I think I've made my decision, but I'm definitely going to do my own due diligence and research Paysafe/Neteller limits based on what you wrote lagcam, before I make a firm decision. Gracias

y'all are awesome, hope everyone is having a wicked night

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by Horatio Caine

Country of Kaliningrad?

Some clowns posted their list with Yugoslavia in it quite recently...

[MaDalton]

Slovenians are called the balkan germans... therefore i shall like them ;)

[shake]

Not sure how you are blocking these countries, is it by something like htaccess on you server, or something at the billing level?

If it is on your server, you could try unblocking Slovenia just for her page and see how things go.

[released]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

Slovenia is usually blocked for it's high rate of fraud. Here is the list of high fraud countries most people block:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia.

And another CCBill cheerleader at it's best

Most of those countries you can make sales and not a strange amount of chargebacks... only country on that entire list that I would block is China because they won't buy a damn thing, because if they did, they would be likely killed by their government. Just sayin'

Maybe Turkey... I've never had a Turkey sale either.

[NemesisEnforcer]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

Slovenia is usually blocked for it's high rate of fraud. Here is the list of high fraud countries most people block:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kaliningrad, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia.

Greece should be added to the list and Japan removed. The Japanese are among my best customers. I must admit, I've never had any problems with South Korea and Brazil either.

[ChargeBacks]

Hello JesseQuinn

As your business grows and expands its reach to international members one cannot completely avoid chargebacks. They are a statistical part of doing business. There are many known patterns that can help you identify fraudulent purchases and separate them from the true sincere consumers. You just need to keep an eye on them closely and your risk will be reduced. Providing members an easy way to cancel their subscription in case they are not satisfied helps cut bank involved refunds a lot.

If you have done everything you can, and still experience friendly fraud chargebacks, consider our service. We do not stop chargebacks from happening, but we are very successful in recovering monies lost to them: original principle owed, bank fees, etc.
Lawyers currently in six countries will contact the consumer on your behalf. There are no upfront fees. Everything is based on a % of what was successfully recovered.

I hope that helps.

Sabrina F.

[faxxaff]

Why not observe fraud patterns and eliminate your security holes?

Most good fraudsters know about blocked country lists. They will attack from developed countries like Canada and Germany.

[paul_r]

as for me.
Slovenia is one of the best countries.
never had any problems with froud or CB there.

[paul_r]

agree regarding Greece 100%

Originally Posted by NemesisEnforcer

Greece should be added to the list and Japan removed. The Japanese are among my best customers. I must admit, I've never had any problems with South Korea and Brazil either.

[greg80]

Originally Posted by paul_r

as for me.
Slovenia is one of the best countries.
never had any problems with froud or CB there.

I would say Slovenia is actually very low risk country, it is usually put in the list with high risk because it is so small and billing processors are too lazy to actually check. But again, I don't know who the person you are dealing with actually is and what you are doing.