VPFP - AVS not returning correct repsonses

[julie_thompson]

Hi everyone,

I just encountered an concerning phenomenon and wondered if anyone had any input.

For the past few weeks, on occasion the AVS for the street address would come back as 'N' on orders but when I'd call the card issuing bank, the street address was a match. Okay, not a huge deal because it prompted me to call and really scrutinize the order.

But just now, I had an order where the AVS returned a 'Y' for the street, zip and CVV code. But when I called the card issuing bank to verify the name and phone number matched the card, Capital One said that nothing matched! Nothing! The name did not match, the street address did not match, the zip did not match and the phone number did not match.

When I called the customer, and asked him if he could verify his information with me and explained why, he was very hurried and said nevermind, canceled the order and said he'd place his order later using his AMEX and hung up on me.

Being really concerned now that I cannot rely on the AVS as a part of my arsenal in combating fraud, I called NOVA and Verisign. Both said that they are just the conduit, that it is the individual bank's response and they have no control over what it returns.

So, does this mean that AVS is really not reliable?

[julie_thompson]

Anyone? Or am I the only lucky one :( that cannot count on their AVS reporting accurately....

[Brad Glaberson]

Me too. I use Cybersource. I lost 3 orders last week that i know of.
Brad
www.whole-kernel.com

[julie_thompson]

Okay, this is getting serious!

I just received another order where the AVS returned 'Y' for the street address, but upon calling the bank, I find the street address does NOT match.

This is the second order in less than a week where the AVS returned a match when in fact it does not.

How can this be?!?!

Someone, anyone, do you know what I can do? I cannot call on each and every order I receive. I'd never get anything else done! And the fact that I've found 2 'non-matches' on AVS 'Y' orders in the select few order's I've called on, is disconcerting!

Anyone?

[Jim Cockerham]

I thought the avs only checks like the first 4 digits of the address...is this correct? If so, I guess the rest could be totally incorrect and still give a "Y".

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

That is correct, it checks the first 3 or 4 numbers in the street address and the first 5 of the zip. Nothing else.

[julie_thompson]

Jim, Vic, you are brilliant! Maybe in the few instances I have encountered where the AVS shows a match, but the CC rep says a no match, the credit card representative may be referring to the street name, not the number? Since they don't say exactly what doesn't match, just a 'no match'.

Thanks! You've restored a molecule of my faith back to the AVS system :)

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

Well, dont let me burst your bubble....but the AVS system IS flawed.

Almost to the point of being useless.

Since there was never any worldwide adoption of the standard, many countries outside the US and Canada do not use AVS at all. This poses a big problem, since the majority of fraud comes from overseas.

Its just another tool to use to identify potential fraud. You should never base the desicion on one of many flags that may appear in an order.