Most Common Causes for Visa Reason Code 57

The issuing bank got a complaint from the cardholder, accepting his participation in at least one transaction with the merchant but denying participation in the remaining transactions and disputing them. The cardholder also acknowledges the card was in his or her retention when these disputed transactions were made. Such issues arise when there is a failure in avoiding multiple transactions and an intention of processing multiple transactions dishonestly. This chargeback does not apply to recurring payments or to mail sequence, telephone sequence, or internet transactions.

Most Common Causes

• Merchant error: Attempted to run multiple transactions fraudulently with same merchant outlet.
• Technical error: Merchant failed to void/refund multiple transactions.
• Friendly Fraud: Cardholder authorized the transactions, but later denies his participation.

Evidence Required

• The consumer has already been issued credit on multiple transactions or on disputed transaction: Send your acquirer the proof of the credits. An attainable solution is if you have issued the appropriate credit to cardholder, just send evidence of the credit to your processing bank.
• If you do not have any receipt to prove that the refund was made, provide the processor information on the refunded transaction’s date and amount so that they can track the transactions.
• If the Customer did participate in one or more valid transaction: Provide your acquiring bank with appropriate documentation, such as order receipts, delivery note, proof of delivery, description of goods and services purchased.
• If Credit was not processed for the disputed transaction amount:, Obtain the chargeback. Don’t issue credit to the chargeback customer, because chargeback will have automatically refunded the customer.

Prevention

• This type of chargeback could have serious complication for your business as it may indicate forceful fraud and can be an act of downturn for the point of sale.
• It also may simply be the result of a mistake by the sales person. In other to fight this case merchant requires immediate analysis and action.
• The merchant should hire honest sales persons so that they do not do fraud with the customers.
• The merchant should share policies with customers and explain what they are purchasing.
• Request customer’s sign on the order receipt in order to make the purchase strong.

Common Examples

Linda purchased few jewelries online. She kept all the desired products in a cart and made a purchase, however, few days later she sees multiple debits from her account for the same purchase. She recalled the day and made sure that she purchased it only once so—she decides to call the company and ask for credit. If the company denies, she has no other option but to dispute the charge under Reason Code 57: Fraudulent Multiple Transactions.