Vindicia and Chargebacks911 partner to stop friendly fraud

By Leandra Monteiro

Chargebacks911, a dispute management specialist, announced that it has formed a strategic collaboration with Vindicia, part of the Amdocs Media Division and a business-to-consumer digital services monetization company.

The collaboration comes at a time when chargebacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Largely driven by friendly fraud, when a customer files a chargeback instead of trying to first obtain a refund from the merchant. Chargebacks have a destructive effect on a business’s ability to grow and retain revenue and can increase the cost of payment services.

“When authorized cardholders dispute legitimate charges to their credit cards, it pushes the bank to force a refund back to the customer under the pretense that the merchant made an error,” said Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and co-founder of Chargebacks911. “This behavior needs to be identified and corrected to prevent merchants suffering illegitimate losses. That’s why a partnership with a leader in subscription commerce monetization solutions like Vindicia is so important to the industry.”

The cost of this industry’s chargebacks is as much as $250 billion annually by some analysts’ estimations. These costs come in the form of fees and fines, false declines, return fraud, and many other expenditures throughout the entire transaction process – from the issuing bank to payment processors.

“Supporting a merchant’s robust subscription base must include a seamless acquisition experience for the subscriber as well as a transparent and easy to follow reconciliation process for merchants to resolve discrepancies,” said Darcy Antonellis, Head of Amdocs Media. “We’re pleased to collaborate with Chargebacks911 as they concentrate on helping merchants retain their revenue via our combined technologies which provide revenue discrepancy resolution.”

Reports also show that consumers who register a chargeback that goes unchallenged are 50% more likely to file another chargeback within 90 days. So, by helping to identify which disputes to challenge, Chargebacks911 will also help Vindicia’s merchants reduce future claims (and the associated costs).