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merchant911.org -- helping Merchants |
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merchant911.org -- helping Merchants |
Annual Report --- Sunday, January 19, 2003
While the full text of our Annual Report is reserved for Merchant 911 members, portions of the report have been released.
We started in January of 2001 and got off to a slow start. By January 2002 we had only 300 members. All that changed in 2002. Between January and the beginning of May the membership had doubled to 600. By May 29 we had 700 members and 800 by the end of July. On Sept. 18 the count went to 900 and at the end of October we hit 1000. Growth rate has stabled out a bit but we're still experiencing strong growth.
Along with the growth, it has been a productive year of change. Merchant 911 has been refered to, by a member of the card industry, as one of the top three anti-fraud sites on the web. This year we closed down two major carder sites and we now have a script that runs daily looking for their URLs and some others that we've heard might crop up. We also recently shut down a PayPal look-alike that was collecting card numbers and PayPal usernames and passwords. And, yes, we'll go after more carder sites this year.
We're also planning a few surprises for Ebay, who has refused to address our concerns about the electronic skimming devices they continue to allow in their auctions. Aiding the scum to commit felonies only begins to describe it.
As mentioned in an earlier release, we've found better anti-fraud tools and built even more. We can now boast the largest known searchable database of close to 18,000 free e-mail addresses as well as our own BIN database to help out those merchants that are suffering with processors that refuse to provide that information.
So, if you're a merchant, we hope you're a member. If you're one of the scum sucking carders or cyber shoplifters, know that we're watching you. And if you are neither, we hope you feel just a bit more comfortable knowing that we're here. Yes, we protect the merchants, but that means we protect your card as well.
