How do I add option to have buyer enter phone number of credit card issueing bank?

[markw10]

I do a lot of online shopping and I have noticed several stores I shop at ask for the issueing bank's customer service phone number for the credit card they are using. I have never tried leaving this blank so I'm not sure if it would accept payment if I would. Today while looking at the policies on one of these web site's it mentioned that they use Address Verification Service and that if you are shipping to a different address than the billing address to contact your credit card company and have the additional shipping address added to the memo. They said since you enter the phone number before they ship the order they will be calling the credit card number to verify that the address is on file with that credit card company as an optional ship to address.
I have never thought of doing this and for awhile to avoid fraud I have considered shipping to billing address only but I know I could lose a lot of business over this so I'm looking for options to protect me while shipping to alternate addresses. Is this a good option to use? Are there features where I can add an option to enter the phone number of the issueing bank for the credit card? I have gone through the admin section but have been unable to find this.

[stevesh]

I've had websites where I was shopping ask me the same thing at checkout - I went somewhere else and bought the product there.

As a seller, I think I have to assume a certain amount of risk. AVS and card verification numbers give me a pretty good idea the card is legit. If I were selling outside the US, there are parts of the world I wouldn't ship to, where fraud is rampant.

I don't think there is much else you can do to protect yourself without ticking off legitimate customers.