This blog is about email verification. Not that exciting. But the story behind our email verification is definitely worth the read.
QuikrStuff Receives 623 Orders Overnight
It’s true! We woke up on Saturday, July 5 to 623 orders in our inbox. We beamed and panicked all at the same time. 623 orders! Wow! Everyone must be shopping on their long 4th of July weekend! But, yikes, how in the world were we going to fulfill all these orders in a timely manner?
A few seconds later, we noticed that almost all of the orders were under the same name and that the majority of them had failed.
The good news – the security processes we had in place on our website identified most of these orders as fraudulent and flagged them as failed.
The bad news – more and more orders were steadily coming in, all from the same “person” (only a computer could generate orders this quickly). When all was said and done, we had 2,102 orders with the same name and address, but a different email address and a different credit card number each time. We believe the purpose of this activity was to determine which of the thousands of credit card numbers entered actually went through and could then be used to order any number of things on all sorts of other e-commerce websites.
Quick Response by MySalesButler.com
We credit our incredible internet marketing agency – MySalesButler.com – for their round-the-clock support and exceptional knowledge and experience. Even with it being a holiday weekend, they were there for us and supported us through this nightmare, which was essential since we could get no immediate assistance from our credit card processor’s customer support. Since all new orders come into our inbox, the first thing that needed to happen was to put a halt to this so we could tend to the real orders coming in and the usual support emails that needed to be separated out and replied to. MySalesButler.com soon made it so that every failed order under this particular name was automatically archived and out of sight.
Visibly, the fire hydrant had been shut off as the number of orders showing up in our inbox looked more typical. However, beneath the surface the orders were still pouring in, with about 3% getting through with valid credit card numbers. MySalesButler.com stuck with us until they found a few solutions that, together, put a stop to this craziness.
The Aftermath
Fortunately, QuikrStuff CEO and Customer Service did not have big plans for the three-day weekend. The next 48 hours were spent dealing with the aftermath. 900 emails had to manually be sorted and archived from the inbox. Communications were sent out to all employees so, come Monday morning, they would know right away what was going on. We remained at the ready to communicate with MySalesButler.com all weekend. And, most importantly, we had to figure out what to do with the three percent of orders (60) that got through. There didn’t seem to be any reason to ship them since they would all go to the same made-up address. But, if we didn’t ship them, then it could come across that we were the ones guilty of fraud–for collecting money for a product and not delivering it. Refunding and canceling the orders was a possibility, but every time we refund an order, our credit card processor charges us a percentage. That was going to get real costly, real fast, not to mention take a lot of time.
Additionally, time and labor was eaten up for two months following the fiasco as we dealt with credit card disputes. Many of the actual owners of these credit cards noticed on their statement a charge from QuikrStuff–most likely a company they had never heard of–and proceeded to dispute the charge. At this point, we realized the right thing to do was refund most of those 60 orders, eating the cost of doing so. And, while we hustled to issue the refunds, the credit card processor was, at the same time, applying credit back to the cards, essentially resulting in the credit card holders earning money off the whole thing. We were frustrated because each of these orders had to be handled as individual instances instead of one big lump of fraudulent orders.
Security Measures Put in Place
As mentioned, MySalesButler.com worked quickly and effectively to get security measures put into place to stop this “person” before the weekend was over. But what about moving forward? What could we do to make sure this never happened again?
Enter email verification. New QuikrStuff customers will notice that, in order to start placing an order, they must first enter their email address and verify that it is a working email that is checked on a regular basis by a real human. And, that human must be them. If this had been in place prior to July 4, none of those fraudulent orders would have been placed. Now, customers cannot proceed with placing an order until they enter a code that was just emailed to them.
How Does Email Verification Work?
After you put items in your shopping cart and click on the cart to start the checkout process, you’ll be asked to enter your email address. Choose an email address that you can check and one that you regularly use.
You’ll see the instructions as you go along. Check your email for the four-digit code that was just sent to you and enter it in the boxes.
Upon entering the correct code, you’ll automatically be returned to the checkout process where you can complete your order.
NOTE: Creating an account with us is part of the process for your first order. You’ll need to think of and enter a password you want to use.
Returning customers must log into their account. If you enter your email address into the email verification form, it will say that there is a saved password for that email address and will not let you continue. Back out of there and log into your account instead.
Email verification prevents fraudulent orders and saves time and money on our end. For you, it ensures that no one is using your email address and identity to order something for themselves.
Email verification is easy and adds about 15 seconds to the ordering process. QuikrStuff thanks you for doing your part to help us prevent eCommerce fraud.
