My Telemarketers have Stolen Credit Card Info from Clients!!

If they do that, then fire them and report them to the police have them taken away in cuffs. The same risk can occur with a cashier at a checkout counter. Not something to worry about much, but if it happens, deal with it.

The other option is to use a "T.O." system where the telemarketer says "Im not authorized to take your credit card by phone so if you will please hold one second I will transfer you over to a billing or "processing" person".

This also gives the customer confidence when they get to the billing or processing person that they are dealing with someone who is authorized.

Just have closes transferred to someone you trust.

I was a credit manager for a national electrical wholesaler for 4 years. First thing I had to do was turn the culture around--the previous owners (it was part of a multinational) had been jailed for fraud. The culture they'd persisted meant it was OK for collectors to accept small bribes (like food) for local contractors to sit on their bill for awhile longer. Branch staff would ignore Credit's decisions and release goods even when they were locked out of the system and couldn't enter the order electronically...they'd do the paperwork later.

By instituting principles and making it clear that honesty was #1, I got rid of the people who no longer fit. They left on their own. I brought the Over 90 Days numbers under control, and set up systems and criteria for evaluating and setting credit limits. Explaining every decision and fighting the battles as we went, the department finally won over the branch staff and they began following our decisions with the actual goods.

After a year, we had a great team who took credit card payments over the phone all the time. We made sure to destroy records of #s we'd taken down immediately, recycling everything into a shredding bin (picked up by a contractor to be recycled).

So my advice is to begin by promoting the right values, and continue by making sure there's a system in place to destroy any records of #s that have been written down temporarily. If you must keep a card # on file, make sure it's behind a password that only your authorized people can get through. Getting the customer to give you the # every time may be tedious, but if you explain the security reason for them they'll appreciate it.