2CheckOut - Passport & Driving License

[Generalissimo]

Hello.

I haven't posted in a while. Anyway I'm working currently as the marketing and online guy at a timber company. We're setting up a site at http://www.oakpanels.co.uk. I installed OSC (max) and originally tried to set it up with paypal, but we all know downsides of paypal, so we decided to switch to 2CO. They've emailed us saying they require the business owner for all merchants to fax their personal passport and driving license to them. The business owner isn't that keen to do this - especially seen as though he doesn't know what they want to do with them.

So my question is - why do they need these and what do they do with them?

[Chris]

2 Checkout, and most third party proxy payment providers, are very draconian when it comes to account verifications, thanks to the prevalence of fraud and everything else.

It would recommend just getting an actual merchant account.

[Generalissimo]

Do authorize.net require these? Are they a merchant account or a payment provider? - I ask because I notice your sword site uses them and I generally trust you to pick the best tools for the job.

[Chris]

Authorize.net is a gateway, generally you get a merchant account from a bank, a bank that works with authorize.net. The bank assumes the risk and handles the application, authorize.net merely is the tool you use.

[Gate2Shop]

It is a manuver to avoid online from and scams that are running amuck these days, the passports and such are harder to make then other I.D. documents.