While there is much activity in the marketplace as the upgrade to emv and triple des compliant eftpos terminals continues it is still important to realise that the best way to protect your business from fraud is educate your staff on the basic procedures.

If receiving payment by credit card, it’s good practice to do the following:

â?? Check if the card has been tampered with or altered in any way, particularly the signature

â?? Check the expiry date on the front of the card.
â?? Check the account number on the front of the card matches the back.
â?? Compare the signature on the card and the sales slip.
â?? Check the ‘hot card’ list for every credit card sale.
â?? Obtain a telephone authorisation for sales exceeding the floor limit or if you are
suspicious of the person’s identity or behaviour.
â?? Ask for photo identification, such as a driver’s licence.

Be wary of a customer who:
â?? is nervous, trying to hurry things up or buys a wide range of expensive items on a newly valid card;
â?? looks at the card before signing the transaction slip or signs awkwardly or slowly;
â?? has a large number of cards in their pocket and attempts to use several before one is’approved’;
â?? purchases an unusual amount of expensive items indiscriminately. A fraudster with a stolen credit card may not carry out the normal pre-purchase activities a legitimate buyer makes when purchasing expensive items e.g. product comparisons, warranty questions,
technical questions or queries on cash discounts …;
â?? makes random purchases with little regard to size and quantity;
â?? purchases large items and insists on taking them immediately;
â?? buys a large number of a single item;
â?? watches closely during authorisation request;
â?? can’t provide photo identification when requested;
REMEMBER: if you haven’t done everything you can to protect your credit card or PIN, you may have to pay for illegal purchases made on your card.
Your credit card provider or merchant can offer further detail on minimising mail, telephone and Internet card fraud.

This information comes from The Neighbourhood Support New Zealand.

Well it’s not quite Trade Me , none the less we are very happy with the traffic on Guano. Yesterday we had 200 users on the site. We are determined to give businesses in New Zealand a value for money directory that is usable by the New Zealand public. We are looking at bringing more features to the website that allow business owners to communicate with their online audience. Websites are still a great way of doing this but we see guano as a way to lead your customers to your site but allowing you control of those important factors that customers use to make their purchasing decisions, like opening hours, types of payment, customer feedback etc.

Currently the most popular searchers on guano are

1. guano
2. fesco lines
3. groeneveld nz ltd
4. brookby lodge
5. lincoln north pak n save opening hours
6. weeride
7. macway
8. sigma computers papatoetoe
9. outboard wreckers
10. alleycat
11. trade me
12. depenz
13. opmc chamber of commerce
14. fullard learning
15. okataina outdoor education centre
16. andrew howden boat builders

Highlights of Paymark eftpos activity March 2007.
Volume:

â?? The number of total card transactions was 62.5 million, up 10.8% on March 2006.
â?? This volume growth rate was the fastest since mid 2005.

Value:

â?? The value of Paymark processed transactions increased over March, as is typically the
case between February and March.
â?? The 11.7% increase was above average but slightly less than for the same period in
2006.
â?? Compared with year-earlier transactions, the value of transactions was up 10.0% in
March.
â?? Wellington and Northland/Auckland remain amongst the regions with fastest value of
transactions growth, although top rank this month goes to Hawkes Bay. The slowest
annual growth rate was recorded in Palmerston North.

We had a good response to our competition we have been running over the last three months. We did the major draw yesterday and Haley Smith from Haley Smith Design was the winner. She chose the three years free eftpos rental. Haley is a young designer based in the fashion hq in wellington. She has her own website www.haleysmith.co.nz.

Hayley was delighted with her win saying “eftpos is essential in retail and having this free of charge means one less expense for the business but enables me to make those impulse sales”

There is more and more businesses looking to upgrade their eftpos equipment as we approach the upgrade deadline of 1st Jan 2007.  We are pleased to continue to bring a great value offering to these merchants.  Check back on the website for our latest promotion

There is lots of calls and letters going to merchants regarding eftpos over the next eight months. We are trying to make this upgrade as easy as possible and there will be more on this over the next few months. Let’s start with the definitions.

What is EMV?
EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, Visa specifications and is a technical specification which
outlines the interaction between chip (smart) cards and terminals to ensure worldwide
interoperability. Further information is available on the EMVCo website: www.emvco.com

What is 3DES?
3DES (aka Triple DES) stands for Triple Data Encryption Standard, which is a strong form of
encryption. 3DES is a strong form of encryption which provides further protection for cardholder
PINs when transmitted over the Paymark network.

Why Chip Technology?
Chip technology is being adopted globally to increase security and protect cardholders, merchants
and banks against the growing problem of card fraud.

There has been much discussion on the Yellow Pages sale over the last few weeks. The main point being, should they have sold this well performing growth asset or the lines network. This was well covered by Rod Drury in his blog.

The value of yellow pages seems extraordinary considering the directory market is moving online.

We have been developing guano over the last three years building up our database of businesses in the New Zealand market. Over that time we have been amazed at the cost of yellow pages advertising, especially considering recent data from the first Nielsen//NetRatings Online Retail Monitor.

The research canvassed 759 New Zealand internet users over a month during December and January. Key findings include:

â?? 66 percent of adult New Zealand internet users surveyed made a purchase online, higher than Australian internet users, 54 percent of whom purchased online in the lead-up to Christmas
â??
â?? 95 percent researched goods or services online.

Guano has been built so that those that update their information, get good feedback from their customers and build up a network of similar good businesses will top out the rankings and therefore the search results.

Glen Barnes wrote Mar 28th, 2007 at 11:57 am “The Yellow Pages Group is in a classic situation of an old media company trying to deal with the internet. The problem they face is that they have to reduce short term profits to real the rewards later on. Take for example a search for â??Buildersâ?? in â??Wellingtonâ??. The results show this: click here

Is there a reason why Signature Homes comes up first? Why only some listings have an email address even though the hosted site has an email address on it? It comes down to paying to get your listing to the top and paying for â??extraâ?? features such as listing your email address.

This is a classic old school way of looking at things. In the past people only had the paper Yellow Pages to look at and the big ads made a difference in how we looked at it. On the web however we have plenty of choice and the site that delivers the most relevant results the fastest will win in the end. What that means is providing the user (not the advertiser) with the most relevant complete results that they can use to find a business.

Once a site has this then and only then can they look at monetizing on top of the core listings. In Yellow Pages case I think they should put the paid for ads on the side. If signature homes wants extra visibility then sell them a small display banner next to the results. There are heaps of ways to make money of a high traffic directory listings site.

I can think of another example where an old media company crippled their website and new player came and took the market by just delivering what the user wanted (One guessâ??)

You are right. It is their game to loose.”

We agree and believe that Guano is on track to be this first point of contact for New Zealand consumers.

â?? You maintain your own listing through the MY GUANO section on the site, which makes the results more relevant to consumers. The listing is free helps you communicate with your online audience.
â?? Search rankings will be improved through good customer feedback and endorsing your businesses partners. Business cannot buy their way to the top, they have to earn it.
â?? We do not sell the information to third parties for marketing purposes.
â?? The ads and sponsors are clearly labeled.
â?? Customers get to see real feedback from other customers
â?? The ability to search for the things that influence your customers buying decisions like location, payment terms, opening hours.
â?? Businesses are able to upload their brochure, menu details and consumers are able to get them faxed, emailed to them through the site.
â?? Businesses are able to put specials on the site to drive foot traffic.
Check out www.guano.co.nz and lets give yellow pages a run for their 2.24 billion dollars

The competition we had running this quarter (31st March 2007) has been extended until the 5th April 2007. This gives you the chance to win a 32 inch LCD tv or Free eftpos for three years. All you need to do is let us know your current eftpos situation or order a new eftpos terminal from us.

Give our team a call on 0800 484 238.