The 3rd Man (T3M) or Verified Payment Data Query (VPDQ) is an extensive risk management tool offered within the VSP Admin area to help you to detect and prevent fraud.

The 3rd Man is an independent company from Protx but work with us to provide further fraud screening for all our vendors.

In CNP environments (Cardholder Not Present), it is unusual that the goods or services being purchased are delivered instantly, therefore there is a 'window of opportunity' within which to 'screen' the data and conduct further checks.

Overview

Helps you to avoid fraud and chargebacks: the service is designed to provide you with more information about the person ordering from your site so that you can detect fraud before it takes place and prevent it from damaging your business.

No integration: the fraud screening is completed for you and the results are displayed in your VSP Admin area. No setup is needed and the service is ready and fully active as soon as you are live.

Easy to use: the traffic light fraud indicators provide a simple way of identifying high risk transactions at a glance.

Informative: the detailed risk analysis will provide you with the reasons why a transaction was given a particular fraud score so that you can decide whether you wish to accept or reject a transaction.

The 3rd Man screens all available data, including Personal data, Payment data, Address data and, where possible, Basket data. The 3rd Man screens to identify suspicious behaviour or where risk appears abnormally high, for example:

•   Multiple addresses used by the same person or card.
•   Repetitive names or addresses used.
•   Similar names or addresses used.
•   Repetitive card attempts.
•   Delivery to 3rd party or high-risk postal areas, etc.

Please note that if the delivery address is different from the billing address and not provided at the time of authorisation, then the risk score will not be valid.

Similarly, the value of the risk score is directly related to the quality of information provided. Details of email, delivery address, phone numbers and IP address must be provided wherever possible


Other example considerations the 3rd Man carries out are:

•   Who is making the transaction?
•   What are they buying?
•   Where is it to be delivered?
•   When was it ordered and when will it be delivered?

Approximately 100 other dynamics are considered, each of which is applied with common sense to your data, so that you can act if required.

The 3rd Man (T3M) provides you with fraud indicators on each transaction that takes place to show high risk (red), medium risk (amber) and low risk (green) transactions in the VSP Admin reports. Working with a traffic light structure (Red, Amber, Green), makes it easy to see the level of risk associated with each transaction. Detailed reports will also show why a transaction has been given a particular rating allow you to decide whether or not you wish to accept it.

                  No Data      Low Risk      Medium Risk      High Risk

In the Transaction list, there is a column called T3M which displays the indicator results back from the 3rd Man.  (     )

This Transaction Detail page shows you the results in more detail. Each transaction is screened by The 3rd Man and the results are displayed in an easy to understand decision tool within the Protx VSP Admin reports.

Unlike AVS and CV2, the results in the VSP Admin area are not instant when a transaction takes place. There is a delay due to the checking procedures The 3rd Man needs to carry out. On average it can take 2 hours for you to see the results back from The 3rd Man.

If a transaction comes back as high risk, there is a chance it is fraudulent. Ultimately it is down to you, the Vendor, whether you process the transaction or not. You should compare the results with the other fraud checks you may have set up on your Account i.e. AVS & CV2 and 3D Secure. You can also do any other checks you feel are necessary to validate the shopper, for example contacting them. If you are in doubt, it is recommended that you VOID or REFUND the transaction depending on whether an the transaction has been settled or not.

The 3rd man results are updated every 2 hours in your VSP Admin area. If your transaction is less than 2 hours old, you will need to wait until the results are sent back from The 3rd man.

If your transaction is older than 2 hours, there may have been an issue with the data being sent to or from The 3rd man.

(As The 3rd Man is an independent company from Protx we cannot always guarantee the results will be sent back)

If you think there is a problem with results not appearing, you can contact our Support team via Support or 0845 111 44 55.

N.B. Our fraud detection system gives an indication of risk only and does not give you any guarantees against fraud. You should regularly review whether you wish to initiate any additional fraud screening checks via a third party.

Data Submitted

•   Protx will securely transmit all transactions processed to The 3rd Man on an hourly   basis.

Data Screened

•   The 3rd Man will then process the transactions through their suite of risk-management   rules and perform an electoral roll and PAF (postcode address file) check. The electoral   roll will validate whether the person is registered at the given address and the PAF will   validate whether the Royal Mail recognises the given address.



•   The rules engine will screen each record by validating against lists of known bad and   good cards, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and IP addresses and by   executing rules looking for behavioural trends, patterns and abnormalities.

Preliminary Result

•   All transactions will be screened as soon as they are received and a preliminary risk   assessment will be notified to Protx. Once all the checks have been completed, each   record will be scored and allocated a risk category (Low, Medium or High) by analysing   which rules have been broken.



•   'Low' indicates that there are no significant risk factors within the transaction details.   'Medium' indicates that there are some risk factors within the transaction details. 'High'   indicates that there are significant risk factors within the transaction details.



•   Once all records have been processed The 3rd Man will pass Protx a file containing the   preliminary risk score, risk category and a complete list of the rules that have been   broken.



•   Your VSP Admin will be updated with the preliminary risk assessment to show whether the   transactions are high, medium or low risk.

Continued Screening

•   The 3rd Man will continue to screen and re-assess the transactions until the following   day when a final fraud screening result will be provided. This makes use of all the time   available before goods are actually shipped to continuously screen transactions to   detect for fraud. This type of screening is highly effective in catching first-time   fraudsters.

Final Result

•   At 04:00 each morning all the previous day's orders will be re-assessed and a file   containing the final risk score, risk category and list of rules that have been broken is   passed to Protx.



•   This final assessment will overwrite the preliminary results in the Protx VSP Admin   screen. These results help you to decide whether or not to accept a transaction that is   processed on your website.

For further information relating to risk assessment of any transaction, call Protx Customer Services on 0845 111 44 55 and quote your T3M ID number.

We are open 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Friday and 9:00am to 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday.

N.B. Our fraud detection system gives an indication of risk only and does not give you any guarantees against fraud. You should regularly review whether you wish to initiate any additional fraud screening checks via a third party.