New Payflow Fraud Screen Service Protects Merchants from Online Fraud, Enabling Real-Time Risk Management Decision Making

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, August 2, 2000 - VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of Internet trust services, today introduced a state-of-the-art fraud screening service, enabling online merchants to distinguish between legitimate shoppers and fraudulent users in real-time, reducing their liability for stolen goods and services. The new Payflow Fraud Screen Service is based on the industry-leading eFalcon fraud scoring technology from HNC, considered the most powerful and intelligent fraud detection and risk management service available on the Internet today. HNC is the world leader in credit card fraud protection. The eFalcon fraud-scoring model is based on technologies developed over a ten-year period by HNC and is currently used to protect the transactions of more than 300 million credit card holders, in both the physical and digital world.

"Most E-businesses have no online fraud protection services whatsoever, yet merchants incur 'chargebacks' for the full value of any fraudulent, web-based credit-card purchases," said Ron Ehlers, vice president, information services for Pacific Sunwear. "Using this service on our PacSun.com site, we can help protect our online customers, and avoid the costly, manual review of large orders. VeriSign's Fraud Screen service is easy to implement and deploy, the response time is excellent, and the flat-fee pricing model provides significant savings compared to other, pay-per-transaction services."

The Payflow Fraud Screen Service brings tremendous speed to the processing of fraud scoring transactions, enabling merchants to automate previously cumbersome, time-consuming risk-management procedures. The service is seamlessly integrated with VeriSign's Payment Services, enabling online merchants to complete authorization and fraud evaluation of Internet credit card purchases in a single transaction request.

Payflow Fraud Screen Service leverages eFalcon's use of sophisticated neural networks and advanced data mining techniques to uncover an individual cardholder's buying patterns, raising caution flags when patterns are abnormal. When an online merchant transmits a credit card transaction to the Payflow Fraud Screen Service for authorization and fraud evaluation, the service assigns each prospective transaction a "score" expressed as a number from 1 to 999, based on established variables that are valid in predicting fraudulent purchasing behaviors. The higher the score, the more likely the transaction is fraudulent. Businesses decide in advance what level of risk is acceptable while automating the order acceptance process.

"This year, e-tailers will be liable for about $600 million worth of fraudulent purchases--nearly 1.5% of total sales," said HNC vice president Allen Jost. "By adopting VeriSign's Payflow Fraud Screen Service, powered by HNC's technology, merchants like PacSun.com can enhance the online order process and reduce the risk of credit card chargebacks, with minimal effects on transaction response time."

"Because online merchants are ultimately liable for all costs associated with fraudulent credit card transactions, managing the costs associated with fraud is mission critical for any online business," said Mark McLaughlin, Vice President and General Manager of VeriSign Payment Services. "Merchants leveraging our new Payflow Fraud Screen Service can now mitigate their risks, giving them the confidence to expand their e-retailing efforts to reach broader markets across the Internet."

Pricing and Availability

VeriSign's new Payflow Fraud Screen Service is available now. To learn more about the service, or to become a Fraud Screen customer, visit www.verisign.com.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN) is the leading provider of Internet trust services - including domain name registration, authentication, payment, validation and network infrastructure services - to Web sites, enterprises, electronic commerce service providers and individuals, enabling trusted and secure electronic commerce and communications over the Internet. VeriSign's trust services for enterprises and electronic commerce service providers are available through regional account representatives, resellers, and VeriSign affiliates worldwide. The company's e-commerce services for websites, developers and individuals are available through www.verisign.com or through the company's Network Solutions subsidiary at www.networksolutions.com.