Circuit City Enlists TARGUSinfo in Fight Against Credit-Card Fraud
On-Demand Verification services help separate ‘needles’ from haystack
VIENNA, Va., September 11, 2008 — TARGUSinfo today announced consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc., is using On-Demand VerificationSM services from TARGUSinfo in an effort to reduce chargeback penalties and payment fraud.
The on-demand services automatically evaluate data that customers supply in Web and call-center “card-not-present” purchases and instantly give Circuit City a contact quality rating for each proposed transaction. The rating is based upon whether a customer’s name, address and phone number are accurate and all belong to the same person.
Together with TARGUSinfo, Circuit City can now automate approval of lower-risk transactions and intensify focus on higher-risk ones to reduce “chargebacks” or bank penalties for fraudulent purchases. Previously, Circuit City used On-Demand Verification services as part of its manual process for agents’ order reviews, and the performance indicated enough confidence in the services that Circuit City decided to make them part of their automated processes.
“With our Web and call-center sales increasing, we need to move a lot more transactions with the same staff,” said Margy Hazelton, Circuit City Senior Manager — Payments and Fraud. “On-Demand Verification services let us confidently and automatically process authentic transactions, leaving us a clearer view of the potentially fraudulent ones — the needles in the haystack. TARGUSinfo was able to give us the simple, powerful and affordable solution we were looking for.”
On-Demand Verification services integrate seamlessly with Circuit City’s proprietary rules-based authentication systems to help manage their increased load given the company’s 21% increase in domestic direct channel sales in fiscal 2008.
“Consumer electronics stores are magnets for fraudsters, but the vast majority of transactions are nonetheless authentic,” said TARGUSinfo COO Robert Nascenzi. “We spare Circuit City the trouble of painstakingly reviewing low-risk transactions so their employees can approve more orders in less time while reducing fraud-related losses.”
Drawing from a proprietary network of more than 100 data sources, On-Demand Verification services use patented processes to verify the relationship of consumer and business name, address and phone information, including wireless, VoIP and nonpublic numbers.
About Circuit City Stores, Inc.
Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) is a leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics and related services. The domestic segment operates through 705 Superstores and nine outlet locations in 158 U.S. markets. The international segment operates through approximately 800 retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada. Circuit City also operates Web sites at http://www.circuitcity.com, http://www.thesource.ca and http://www.firedog.com.
About TARGUSinfo
On-Demand InformationSM services from TARGUSinfo provide unique identification, verification, qualification and location solutions that enable communication service providers, retailers, call-center operators, Web-based marketers and others to dramatically increase the quality of their services and the effectiveness of their marketing. A privately held company, TARGUSinfo is headquartered in Vienna, Va. For more information, visit www.TARGUSinfo.com.
Press contact:
Pete Simpkinson
TARGUSinfo
703.272.6200
pr@TARGUSinfo.com
www.TARGUSinfo.com
