Card Not Present

What Does Card Not Present Mean?

Card not present (CNP) refers to a purchase a consumer makes without physically presenting his or her credit or debit card at the time of purchase. CNP transactions often occur online and are conducted by consumers without the actual in-store credit card swipe. CNP transactions are very convenient for consumers, allowing them to make purchases from a PC or mobile device. Unfortunately, credit card fraud runs rampant in CNP transactions, making it necessary for businesses to adopt online fraud solutions to protect both consumers and financial institutions.

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Techopedia Explains Card Not Present

Unfortunately, CNP transactions can set the stage for credit card fraud. The good news for consumers is that the banks that host the merchants are often required to reimburse shoppers when a fraudulent CNP transaction is made a their expense.

To combat this problem, merchants and banks have developed a number of fraud solutions. One strategy may involve a merchant building its own by back-end hard code rules within an e-commerce solution. Or, a merchant may hire a vendor that specializes in this type of online protection. Fraud mitigation applications can include dynamic rule writing, velocity running, the use of performance scorecards, data management, rules and lists management and maintenance, reconciliation performance and third-party data source connections. While it is important for companies to have online fraud protection, developing this in-house can translate into hefty amounts of time and resources, not to mention fraud management expertise. This is when hiring an outside vendor can come in handy.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…