Banks corporate secrecy laws typically impose civil and criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, including information on the beneficial ownership and control of corporate vehicles. These laws diminish the capacity of authorities to obtain and share beneficial ownership and control information when they not provide mechanisms for domestic and international authorities fulfilling their regulatory/supervisory or law enforcement functions to access records.

Above is part of an article we found on a website of OECD. The purpose of the entire article is to inform people about the illicit use of bank accounts for laundering money or to hide money from tax authorities.
The main purpose for an offshore bank account is to have it opened in the name of the offshore company to be able to get all the benefits from your offshore company operation. Beside the tax benefits and asset protections possibility, often such offshore vehicles are used to be established by people which live in countries where they are unable to open an bank account.

Another widely used reason for opening an offshore bank account and an offshore company is if the business conducted is Internet based. The card associations has divided the world in about 6 regions and prohibit people from one region to clear credit card transactions in another region then where the company and the business is conducted. To work around this problem it is common to open an offshore company which fells into the region of where the Acquiring bank is located with whish the transactions should be cleared.

Other aspects are the legal issues of certain product or services, for example the distribution and selling of replicated products of brands is prohibited in most parts of the world if they are not licensed. In some countries it is however, possible to sell those products; typically China is such a country. To be able to sell such products on the Internet you will need to become a credit card acceptance agreement with a bank in the region where it is legal to sell the product. But those banks (as already explained above) require you to be incorporated in the same country as the Acquiring Bank. To work around this you will need to establish an offshore company for instant in China; since it can be overwhelming to open a company there it could be of benefit for you to have the Chinese entity to be owned by a “more close to you” company which in worth case can be liquidated and in that way not harm you or your economy.

[...] Read the entire article at web-chamber.com

Thank you for your reading and we hope to be able to serve you once in a while when you decide to register a Cyprus Offshore Company or need a Cyprus Bank Account or just want to Accept Credit Cards on your Website. Then please contact cclogic.com | Please also feel free to visit our Merchant Servise Discussion

As long as the websites and the server it is hosted on is PCI compliant, and the compliance is maintained on a regular basis, then it is safe to key in your credit card information and other personal information.

Many websites will redirect the card holder to a “shared” or “secure” payment form which is hosted at the payment gateways end, and which (if the PSP is PCI compliant) is secure. In some cases and on large web shops it is sometimes of benefit for the website owner to integrate their website directly with the payment gateway which keeps the card holder on the website which then again will leave the card holder get a better experience in some cases.

However, since PCI hasn’t reached all websites and web shops on the Internet, then you will still find places which don’t redirect you to a secure payment form and which aren’t PCI compliant. This websites are unsecure and you should avoid them for any price. If they for any reason are unable to obtain a valid PCI certificate then you can be assured that it isn’t safe to enter your credit card information there.

I have seen many cases, where those website owners want to have the card holder to be kept on the Website/web shop without being redirected to any secure payment form, due to a more professional look and various other reasons, as they explain. I even heard that some want to store the card information because they want to use it for marketing and fraud prevention. However at the end of the road they didn’t care about the security, people think that just because the card information is encrypted then it is safe to store it, to those people, you are SO WRONG, it take so much more to get the proper security implemented to avoid any security breach or even avoid hackers to get the information. It is a task which many think they can overcome but they quickly see that it will cost a few bugs to get it done and because of additional expenses they just leave it and pray that nothing happens or even just don’t care about it.

It isn’t that expansive for a website owner to get compliant and have the proper security and patches applied to your server, and you can find some low cost providers like hackersafe which will help you to be and stay complaint. In my opinion a few thousand dollars should be worth it.

Many people will try to tell you other stories and have found the key to a short cut, don’t believe them; you have to follow the PCI compliance regulations which I already provided a link for.

Many merchants believe that banks and credit card organisations don’t devote enough energy on searching for thieves in order to reduce the number of fraudulent transactions, as costs associated with an investigation can work out greater than abandoning the search. In particular, small fraud transactions are unlikely to be scrutinized too closely as the cost of research and prosecution will generally exceed the loss caused by the fraud. Thieves that perpetrate credit card crime are either never found or go without punishment and so are free to carry on persecuting customers and merchants. Generally, there is little merchants can do once a fraud has occurred and they have to accept they will lose some of their profit to the effects of fraud at present if they want to have their business online.

Associations of merchants have tried to bring into practice various anti-fraud measures, such as single use card numbers, however they are not popular with customers as it involves a new number each time, so is quite impossible for customers to memorise card numbers. People require credit cards with no aggravation and because of laws that limit customer liability in the event of fraud there is little motivation to engage in extra security. Merchants can execute these extra security measures but take the risk of losing business if the customer chooses not to use them.

If you are an online merchant and think that a customer might be using a stolen credit card, get in touch with the appropriate card provider (Visa, Amex, MC or Discover) to find the issuing bank’s phone number, then phone the bank to report that you believe their customer’s credit card information has been stolen.

Online security cannot be fully guaranteed, but then what can? If you employ a system that provides anti-fraud tools they can only help you in cutting down the number of fraudulent transactions in your online business. As your business experience grows, you will start to recognise suspicious transactions and can check them out before proceeding. As an online business you will have little time to investigate every transaction you are doubtful of, so have a look online where there are now lots of companies to be found that offer ant-fraud tools to minimize credit card fraud risks to merchants.

Need to Accept Credit Card Payments and a Payment Gateway? visit cclogic.com today

The decision to accept credit card payments and so increase revenue to your online business brings with it the difficulty in choosing a payment gateway to process sales.

In very simple terms, the gateway processes online payments by connecting your websites order form with the merchant account and returning the answer to the merchant and customer, either approved or declined. Although the gateway itself actually only connects the website to the merchant account, larger payment gateway providers offer additional services, such as merchant accounts and shopping carts.

Gateways offer a range of features that will increase security and revenue. Listed below are several of the more common features to expect.

The most important feature are fraud prevention tools. Merchants continually neglect this part of their business; fraudulent transactions result in loss of revenue, something no merchant wants or needs. Merchants will be aware of chargebacks and the penalties these can incur; credit card fraud is prevalent, increasing daily as hackers come up with advanced methods to obtain card information. Utilising anti-fraud tools will mean less time inspecting suspect transactions and more time generating sales. Basic anti-fraud tools include an Address Verification System (AVS) that checks the customers’ delivery address against the address the card issuing bank has on file, and CVV2, the 3 digit security number printed on the back of credit cards VISA, MasterCard and Discover Card.

Another addition to expect is a recurring billing system, particularly suitable for subscription and membership based businesses. Many merchants have customers that order products on a regular basis, if billing has to be done each month to the same customer using the same details it can waste valuable time and energy. With recurring billing you just supply the gateway with the customers billing information and how regularly to invoice them (this only needs doing once) and the gateway conducts all future transactions.

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Shoppers today expect convenience, simplicity, and a wide range of payment methods for them to choose from.

Payment by credit card is by far the most popular payment of choice and if a merchant doesn’t offer this, the consumer will simply go elsewhere; competition is fierce.

Setting up a merchant account with Our Payment Gateway providers enables the major credit cards to be accepted on a website, including Visa, MasterCard and Visa Electron for UK customers. The account allows for authorisation, settlement and management of credit card transactions online.

Internet sales can be managed worldwide using a single payment gateway and payments processed in real time. Our Payment Gateway providers also have Virtual Terminal software, a payment terminal that allows you to accept mail order or phone payments if for some reason the information can’t be collected from an internet based system. So transactions can be processed either online or offline.

Access to the payment gateway will ensure all transactions are easily processed with all the major banks and is available to merchants in all European Countries.

The gateway used by Our Payment Gateway providers has been designed to be as easy to use as possible, giving absolute control over payments and transactions; the option to print out statements is even available. The system is extremely powerful and several merchant accounts can be handled on one server. The system is able to handle all major clearing banks and several clearing banks can be installed at once.

Our Payment Gateway providers utilizes the Address Verification System (AVS) which confirms the identity of the credit card holder. The system works by confirming the billing address of the credit card is the same as the one on the application form held at the credit card issuing bank. Security Code Verification (MasterCard Secure Code & Verified by Visa) was introduced to improve the security of Internet payments.

Basically it is 3 numbers printed on the card or signature strip and required by merchants to secure ‘card not present’ transactions taking place over the Internet, on the telephone, by mail or fax. Due to increased attempts at card fraud, it is now obligatory to supply this code when the cardholder is not present in person.

This article is written by Accept Credit Card Payments . biz