The Pellucid Perspective - November 2020 - 2

ILLUSTRATION BY SHARAF MAKSUMOV / SHUTTERSTOCK

COURSE FINANCE
& ACCOUNTING

Credit Card Scam

Golf Course Online Stores Exploited; NGCOA Earns their keep in Resolution
By Stuart Lindsay

n mid-October, we were made aware of problems for some
courses using the Elavon/ETS credit card processing platform for their online stores. Harvey Silverman sent me a
note saying " this is right up your alley. " As some of you know, I
have written extensively about the murky business of credit card
processing many times over the years. As we investigated the
situation, we saw tremendous efforts made by both the NGCOA
and a well-respected web and e-commerce hosting company in
dealing with the situation and getting resolution for the affected
courses.
Pellucid was also impacted tangentially by these attacks - we
use the same web and e-commerce company to host our website and Elavon/ETS for online payments. We weren't affected
by the " hack, " but our online store was shut down as part the
company's proactive steps to prevent the hackers from spreading
to more courses. Ultimately, we did switch processors as part of
getting our store back up and running.
To summarize the " hack, " here is a statement from Ronnie
Miles, Director of Advocacy for the NGCOA in an October
29th posting to the " Accelerate " NGCOA Bulleting Board:
" As NGCOA recently reported, our industry wasÂ recently hit
by a credit card scam. To date, this scam has resulted in more
than $428,000.00 in erroneous charges to at least 15 golf courses.
Since being alerted to this issue, NGCOA engaged with all

2 THE PELLUCID PERSPECTIVE

parties who had participated in processing the credit card transactions and withdrew funds from our golf courses' bank account.
This includes representatives from Elavon, U.S. Bank, which was
the acquirer for Elavon/ETS credit card transactions, and VISA
Corp in an effort to identify the parties responsible for refunding
our golf courses.Â
Elavon indicates that they are going to provide refunds to the
affected golf courses. As of this date all requested refunds have
been approved. We are continuing to work with all of our affected courses to ensure they receive the same commitment and
their funds are fully returned. "
In addition, we spoke with Jay Karen, CEO of the NGCOA,
the CEO of the webhosting company and Jay Eccleton of The
Emerald in St. Johns, MI. Collectively, they provided copies of
correspondence with the various parties and additional background. A couple other affected courses were contacted, but declined comment; with one indicating that they were worried it
would affect their ongoing relationship with Elavon/ETS.
This brings up one of the primary issues with credit card processing - your merchant account is a very important part of your
business and the entities that control the process have a tremendous amount of leverage in terms of rules, regulations and their
power to dictate the availability of their merchant services. As
you will see, they can also be less than transparent and unresponNOVEMBER 2020

The Pellucid Perspective - November 2020

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