[RetailEdge Moderator]

One of the new price scams (for lack of a better word) is POS/Point of Sale Software essentially giving the software away to get your credit card business. Although this is something that we have seen before and usually it means that you will make up for it with your credit card fees, it recently took a little more of a darker turn.

We have seen it coming from Point of Sale software developers that have not received their PA-DSS Validation. The process of PA-DSS validation is a long and costly process but one that we feel is very important. Keeping our customers credit card data secure (let alone your business information) we felt was important enough for us to go through the process and get the validation.

There are a number of upcoming deadlines approaching that won't let the credit card processors "board" merchants unless they are using a PA-DSS validated application. So there are a number of POS Software solutions out there that are providing deep discounts to entice people to buy their software before these deadlines occur.

So people should ask their potential POS software vendor whether they are selling PA-DSS validated application or whether they are going through the process of getting validated. If they are not, you might not be able to get a merchant account to process credit cards through your POS software.