What Are the Settings in FMF?

Security is important when dealing with online transactions.

PayPal offers users its own service, dubbed fraud management filters, or FMF, which can identify, flag or thwart potentially fraudulent transactions. Users can set up the FMF to control possible over payments; flag, hold for review or deny riskier outgoing payments; and review and restrict incoming payments.

Fraud Management Filters

Paypal offers two different kinds of filters, basic and advanced. The basic, or free filters, allow the user to screen transactions based on the country of origin, the maximum transaction amount and the address affiliated to the transaction. The advanced filters incur additional charges and offer an array of higher level security options. The costumer, for instance, can use advance filters to screen transactions based on credit card details, domain names and IP addresses.

Fraud Management Filter Settings

Under the heading "filter actions" there are four levels of settings, which act as filters for transactions: accept, deny, review and flag. For instance, setting a filter as "accept" allows PayPal to accept transactions that fall below a minimum transaction amount. Depending on the setting, the user might deny payments from countries for which it is too difficult to conduct business or flag payments from unconfirmed addresses. Set up your FMF so that most transactions pass through your filters and payments are accepted automatically. The goal is to minimize the risk of a fraudulent transaction, without hindering the flow of legitimate payments.

Monitoring Fraud Management Filters

PayPal has a feature that allows the user to monitor the effects of setting up fraud management filters. You can use the "fraud management filters performance monitor" to review the effect of your filter settings and make decisions to balance risk and convenience. The user can monitor the monetary number and percentage of payments accepted, pending and denied, after fraud management filters are applied. The performance monitor also shows the number of times the filters are triggered during the specified time period.

Virtual Terminal

PayPal's FMF architecture also offers the "virtual terminal" interface, wherein auto processing is suspended and the incoming and outgoing transactions are put on hold until further instructions are provided. The user intervention is requested before allowing or denying a transaction from being processed.

References

• Paypal: Introducing Fraud Management Filters