A full money back guarantee is critical. No matter *how much* value you are giving to your customer, failing to offer them a complete, hassle-free refund on their purchase is a surefire recipe for cyber-failure. You MUST make them feel extremely comfortable that you will stand behind your product unconditionally.

Perceived value (what your customers *think* they are going to get) is important, but true value is essential and you MUST give your customers more in value than dollars you receive in return!

3. Set Your Sites on Customer OverService!!

Now here's where credibility starts turning itself into e-Trust Factor. Say someone has purchased a product that you ship to them and for some reason, it never arrives. Besides lending a sympathetic ear and re-shipping order right away, what else do you do? Of course, you give them something valuable, for FREE! My products are digital but whenever a customer has had a real struggle downloading (usually their inexperience) I provide them with a great report that I have just for this purpose. You should see positive reactions when I do this!

Something else. Give refunds with a smile. Hard to do sometimes, but not only have I had refunded customers purchase new products, I know for an Internet fact that they have told many people about fast and friendly refund they received. Positive word-of-mouth can go a long way to building trust factor.

Here's a fundamental rule of mouse: Stay On Top of Your Email! Perhaps greatest way of building trust with your customer is to let them experience fact that you are there for them, and as close to speed of light as you can! From my own direct experience, my customers and resellers are simply amazed when they receive fast (often instant) and friendly email support I provide. Kind of a sad statement on general state of customer service on Internet I'd say!

In closing, I guarantee that if you follow these 3 powerful steps you will witness a dramatic increase in sales because you have built e-Trust Factor.

Remember, you are On Your Honor!

Rick is the author of 3 top-selling eBooks at: http://www.interniche.net/ebooks.htm and the purveyor of those amazing traveling billboards called I.D. IT! Plates: http://www.iditplates.net

Valuable lessons learned here folks. I'm quite sure I will be able to add to this list once I'm all way through this dilemma, however, I felt it best to let you in on some good advice right now:

1. Thoroughly check each credit card order you receive. If you see irregularities as per what I've listed above, refund card right away before they batch. The email address will most likely be fake and you will not be able to reach customer by email.

2. You *may* want to consider blocking out some countries from your program. Many third world countries are infamous for credit card fraud. In this case, cards were all domestic but resellers were from Europe and Asia.

3. If you use Authorize.net you may want to check out their new FraudScreen.net service. If you use another gateway, check to see what fraud prevention services they have in place.

4. If you detect fraudulent orders, contact your merchant account provider right away. They should be willing to work WITH you on problem. Remember, you will have a certain *allowance* in terms of chargebacks/refunds and you may stand to lose your account if you reach or exceed that threshold.

5. Lend a sympathetic ear to those victims whose cards were charged fraudulently. Some, as in my case, will be understandably angry and although that anger should be directed at thieves, they may lash out at you. Act on their refunds immediately!

6. Once you are *sure* a reseller is using this scheme, delete them instantly but make sure to *Save* all their registration and commission data before you do so. These documents may be required in future investigations. I informed each reseller with this notice:

"We have terminated your website and are withholding commission payment pending investigation of fraudulent orders emanating from your website. Authorities in all countries involved have been given complete documentation."

This way, in slight event they are innocent (my guys certainly weren't), you haven't technically accused them. You might want to contact your attorney before officially notifying them.

It's almost inconceivable to me that even most desperate thief would resort to buying (or hacking) stolen credit card information only to use it in such a way as to expect a financial reward 1-2 months later when there is a better-than- average chance they will be caught, not paid at all and reported to applicable authorities. These morons did however, cause me great grief, which has only just started, and which you can probably avoid altogether.

Just as I was putting finishing touches on this article, I received an email from a friend and fellow affiliate program manager who was concerned about fraudulent orders and guess what? She had same thieving resellers as I had!

Considering that this appears to be a growing problem, it is my hope that you will take my advice to heart before you become a victim of The Latest, Not-so-Greatest dotCon Game!

Rick is the author of 3 top-selling eBooks at: http://www.interniche.net/ebooks.htm and the purveyor of those amazing traveling billboards called I.D. IT! Plates: http://www.iditplates.net