Visa Inc is making life a little bit easier for travel agents continually stung by ‘friendly fraud’ chargebacks.
During a recent meeting of the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) Credit Card Working Group, Visa has agreed that airline issued flight manifests can be used as ‘compelling evidence’ to fight fraud payment card chargebacks which could potentially save the industry millions.
‘Friendly fraud’ occurs when a cardholder claims a fraudulent card not present transaction took place after the date of travel even though they were knowingly involved.
A flight manifest will be an acceptable remedy against a fraud claim when a passenger name matches the cardholder name.
"Visa has taken a huge step in supporting the airline industry in the fight against friendly fraud," said Jennifer Watkins, director of credit card services and fraud prevention at ARC.
"Moving flight manifests to remedy status ensures that merchants will not be held liable for chargebacks when the cardholder is the passenger and the ticket was used."
"Given the ongoing growth in card-not-present transaction volume, we have been working to evolve our dispute management processes for the entire merchant community, including the airline industry, to help merchants fight fraud more effectively and efficiently," said Ramon Martin, global head of merchant solutions, Visa Inc.
"We want these recent changes to be a positive step in streamlining the card-not-present dispute process for everyone involved," Martin added.
