You've successfully set up your online gift basket business and you're enjoying increasing sales. And then, one day, you get a huge order and are immensely pleased. The credit card transaction goes through and a few days later and after your hard work at getting together the twenty gift baskets and shipping them to the required destination, you discover that the bank refuses to credit the amount to you.

Online transactions are a boon to merchants and customers but merchants are sometimes at the unfair receiving end of fraudulent orders. But, there are ways you can be smart about it and prevent such unfortunate occurrences.

Look for key pointers to fraud such as weird phone numbers. You might want to double-check an order that has a phone number such as 416-444-4444.

You should also be wary of an order that has a lot of typographical or grammar mistakes or is entered in all uppercase letters. Most thieves are in a hurry. Make sure you verify these orders with the customer or if they look too suspicious, feel free to decline the order. It's better to lose a transaction than to have your service and investments taken advantage of by thieves.

Be overly cautious about items that are ordered in unusually large quantities or combinations. Also, orders that far exceed the average order value signal extra caution. Also be aware of items that are easily available in the country the order is from and yet are ordered in large quantities.

Pay attention to the name of the customer as entered on your gift basket web site and the name as it appears on the card, or as the receiver. If there is a difference, be prepared to investigate further. The same goes for customer address and delivery address. Of course, people could want the baskets shipped to someone else. But, you have to watch out.

Make sure you have the Address Verification Service set up. This is a service that is provided by most merchant processors. With it, you can verify that the address on file with the bank (in the US) that issued the credit card matches that entered by the customer.

For cards issued outside the US, call the card's bank. In some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K., there are laws against verifying a customer's address. But, the banks in most other countries will tell you if the information you have matches what they have on file.

Be wary of customers who use e-mail addresses from free services such as hotmail and netaddress. These addresses are easy to obtain and people can sign up for such services under a false name and address.

In cases of uncertainty, call the cardholder or the buyer. Explain that you need to confirm their address in case of a problem with delivery.

Be proactive, try to cover all grounds with online transactions, and surely, you can come out with a clean slate of not falling a victim of fraud.