AVS

A fraud check that compares the billing address entered at checkout against the address on file with the card issuer. Returns a match code (full match, ZIP-only match, no match, etc.) which the merchant can use as one signal in fraud scoring. Widely used in the US; less standardised across Europe.

In practice.

AVS matching is a cheap fraud filter for card-not-present sales in the markets that support it, mainly the US, UK and Canada. Merchants typically use the AVS result as one signal among several rather than an automatic block, because a hard AVS rule rejects real customers with mismatched billing records.

Related terms: CVV · 3D Secure · Fraud rate