Safeguards against guest accounts that are fraudulent

[Xenalamb]

Does paypal have any safeguards against Guest Accounts? 
If i find a credit card, make a purchase on ebay via guest account, and pay for it through Paypal using the credit card.

Using a fake name, purchasing small items so not tracked, and sent to post office rather than a physical address.....

How are sellers protected?  Surely paypal must have some sort of safeguard?

[angelleye · Accepted solution]

There are safeguards that really are not PayPal specific, but rather standard procedures for taking payments online in general. Sellers do need to understand procedures so they can protect themselves. In your example, there are a few places this would break down if proper procedures were followed.

If the purchase was made with the variables that you mentioned in your example, PayPal's system would not cover it with Seller Protection, and this would be obvious to the seller in the payment details. If the seller decides to ship an item that is not covered by Seller Protection and something goes wrong, well, that's your own fault.

If such a transaction were to come through with PayPal Pro or some other direct CC processing, then Seller Protection would not apply, but the rule would still be the same. In this case, the PO box that you mention using as shipping address would cause the credit card address verification to show a mis-match. So there again, if the seller decides to ship when the address does not match the billing address of the credit card, and something goes wrong, that's on them.

So yes, PayPal like all processors have safeguards in place, but sellers still need to educate themselves enough to follow proper procedures so that these safeguards will work for them.

[Xenalamb]

That is not what i was asking. 

In Australia it is not viable to send an $8 item with tracking, as it will cost over half that amount for the tracking alone.

But that is irrelevant. Change my example to one where it does have tracking then.  Sure, i am protected under seller protection against chargebacks, but they are still a headache when you get them.

Also the address was not to a po box. That would require registration so would be the same as a physical address.  The address given was the address of the actual post office itself.

So back to my original question.... what safeguards do paypal have in place for guest accounts?  They are not verified.

Or can person just make a payment through paypal without any proof that they either own the card, or even that the name they have supplied is correct?

I am asking what safeguards paypal implements NOT what protection i have as a seller (I am an ebay seller of over 50k feedback, I know what i am doing).

Or to put it another way.......protecting fraudulent payments the step BEFORE seller protection kicks in.

I have never purchased anything via the Guest option, so I am not aware of what it entails. Does it ask for the CCV? Some form of proof of ID.....anything really? 

[angelleye]

PayPal has all sorts of safeguards in place for this, which is why you see so many people griping about payment holds in these forums and others.

As for chargebacks being a hassle when they happen...yes...that's part of being a business owner. That's not a PayPal specific problem. That will happen whether you're selling online or in person, with PayPal or any other processor, or even cash. People could still sue if they really wanted to, and whenever this sort of stuff is going on of course it's a hassle.

When a guest checkout (or any checkout for that matter) comes through the system there are many variables that are checked and if enough red flags are raised it will be denied or placed in pending/held status.

That's why it all comes back to simply following the standards to protect yourself, and let your payment processor do what they can do add additional layers, which PayPal does indeed do.

You act like PayPal's guest checkout is somehow different from any other credit card processor, though. If somebody has a card number, and they fill in a form with bogus info, yes, you're going to hope your processor would catch it, and they often will. Again, PayPal does have such safeguards in place, so if that's the answer you're looking for, the simple answer is yes.

[shacott]

my understanding is Paypal does not protect sellers when guest check out is used its in their updated user agreement.  

[angelleye]

I'll have to review that myself, but if that's the case it really doesn't change much.

Seller Protection is something PayPal offers its merchants, but when somebody uses a credit card directly with Guest Checkout, they can just file a dispute directly with the card company. If the card issuing bank sides in favor of the card holder (which they almost always do) they would take the money from PayPal, and PayPal would need to get it from you.

They cannot cover this sort of thing and just eat all those refunds. It's up to you as the merchant/seller to make sure you are following standard procedures to avoid problems.

The Guest Checkout transactions will still provide info about the shipping address being confirmed and it will provide a security code result. If these things do not check out, in the very least you should try to follow up with the buyer to talk to them about it. In many cases, probably just cancel the order and refund them immediately.

If the address is confirmed and the card code matches, and you ship to the confirmed address, the odds of anything going wrong are very slim.

This procedure should be following no matter who you're processing credit cards with.