Is CyberSource Unfairly Excluding Some Consumers from E-commerce?
Wired News is reporting that a credit profiling service called CyberSource may be excluding certain consumers with good credit histories from participating in e-commerce transactions.
"CyberSource's database includes the purchase history of all cards used
across all of its client sites. The company analyzes each new purchase
request against the database, running it through a complex series of
algorithms that ultimately spit out a single number between 0-99. The
higher the number, the higher the likelihood that the requested transaction
is fraudulent, according to CyberSource."
What happens next depends upon the vendor. But, a lot of vendors simply tell declined customers to call their credit card company. This is often the beginning of a big run-around because the credit card company typically has no access to the risk information on which CyberSource based its calculation.