Online fraud is the fastest growing risk-management problem in the payment card industry and accounts for more than 35 percent of total fraud losses, according to the Nilson Report. To help address this problem, Curbstone Corp., IBM, and CardinalCommerce have teamed up with camera retailer Adorama to launch a counter-attack.

Adorama, a midsize company and a leading online retailer of photography and video gear, is combating credit card fraud through authenticated payment options and help from the three IT vendors.

Curbstone's secure online payment solution for Adorama runs on IBM i, iSeries, and AS/400 servers. Web shopping is now more secure at Adorama helping it cut fraudulent online purchases. This shrinks costs and allows sales they might otherwise forfeit because of overly strict, but less effective, anti-fraud procedures, the companies said.

"Hundreds of thousands of merchants around the world, large and small, use these servers as the foundation of their IT infrastructure because they are exceptionally secure and reliable," said Scott Handy, vice president of Marketing and Strategy for IBM Power Systems.

"We do one thing as well as anyone in the world," says Ira Chandler, Curbstone president. "We seamlessly and securely link merchant credit card purchases to order entry systems. Our clients are brick-and-mortar merchants, mail-order, and call-center operations, and online vendors. Adorama, of course, fits each those categories."

Curbstone Card software now offers optional "Verified by Visa" and "Mastercard Secure Code" authentication solutions from CardinalCommerce Corp. Matt McDowell, vice president of Merchant Services at CardinalCommerce, explains the goal: "Merchants work hard to make the purchase easy and stress-free so that the customer does not give up before checkout. But it's just as important to make this experience secure and to protect both parties. These authenticated payment options do just that."

Adorama's newly enhanced order management systems have reduced processing fees by 12 basis points. "We couldn't be happier with the solution. Both Mastercard and Visa have lowered our costs per transaction as an incentive to take part in their authenticated payment programs," said Harry Drummer, special assistant to the president. "In addition, we estimate these programs have reduced fraudulent online purchases by more than five percent; our overall payback period was under five months."

"Adorama has benefited from a team of first-rate specialists spanning transaction security services, payment software, and computer hardware. The team has delivered an integrated suite of state-of-the-art card processing tools that are practical -- and cost-effective -- for everyone, from small shops and online merchants to huge Web vendors," Handy said.

About Adorama
Adorama is one of the nation's largest retail, mail order and Web-based suppliers of high quality photo equipment and services. For more than 30 years, it has served professionals as well as amateurs in the photographic, video, digital imaging and telescope fields.

About CardinalCommerce
CardinalCommerce Corp. is the global leader in enabling authenticated payments, secure transactions, and alternative payment brands for both e-commerce and mobile commerce. Cardinal's proprietary and easily deployable technology provides the ability to conduct authenticated Internet, wireless, and mobile transactions safely and securely.

About Curbstone
Curbstone Corp. provides payment-processing software exclusively for merchants using the IBM i operating environment (formerly i5/OS) running on IBM Power Systems servers and on older iSeries and AS/400 servers. Curbstone Card software, listed in IBM's Power Systems Developer Road Atlas, delivers native payment processing for credit/debit card authorization and settlement.

About IBM
For more information about IBM Power Systems please click here. More information on IBM payment solutions can be found here.