The consumers certainly need to be aware of the risks they incur when using credit cards on the web. However, it is the merchants who are left holding on to the short end of the stick most of the time. However, all the news is not bad.
Merchants can adopt many good practices to reduce their risk levels.
It is far easier to trace and catch someone locally than if the goods were shipped elsewhere. Buying patterns indicate that transactions originating from certain countries havea low risk profile. High risk countries such as Russia, Eastern European countries, African countries and Indonesia should be dealt with a lot of care. Hence, it is generally considered safe to process a transaction where both the addresses are the same. The merchant would do well to check the history of successful transactions against the current one.