62
Visa Reason Code 62: What It Was and When It Applied
Reason code 62 covered in person sales made with a fake card. Here is what it meant and where its work went.
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Visa reason code 62 was a fraud chargeback code. Its name was Counterfeit Transaction. It is one of the old Visa codes, and it no longer exists as its own code today. Merchants who ran cards before the rules changed may still see it on old notices and case files.
What is Visa Reason Code 62?
In the older rules, reason code 62 was Counterfeit Transaction. It covered an in person sale made with a fake card that the cardholder denied making.
A counterfeit card is a card that looks real but is not. Someone made it from stolen card data, often from a skimmer or a data breach. The real cardholder never bought or used it.
The sale had to happen in person for this code to fit. The fake card was swiped or dipped at your terminal. The cardholder then told their bank they never made the purchase.
When Reason Code 62 Applies
The basic case is simple. A person walks in, pays with a counterfeit card, and walks out with the goods. Later the real cardholder spots the charge and disputes it.
One version of the code applied when a chip card was used for a sale that did not take place at a chip reader. If your terminal could read chips but the sale went through the magnetic stripe instead, that gap mattered. It pointed the loss at the merchant who did not take the chip.
That rule tied code 62 to the chip liability shift. When a merchant ran a chip card by swipe, the merchant took the fraud loss that the bank would have eaten otherwise.
Reason Code 62 vs. Other Fraud Reason Codes
Code 62 was not the only fraud code in the old set. It sat near codes that covered different kinds of fraud.
Code 81 covered fraud in a card present sale when the card was real, not fake. Code 83 covered fraud when the card was not there at all, such as online orders. Code 75 covered a charge the cardholder said they did not recognize, with no claim that the card was fake. Code 57 covered several charges from the same fake card in a row.
The line between them came down to the card itself. If the plastic was counterfeit and the sale was in person, code 62 was the fit. If the card was real but stolen, or the sale was online, other codes applied.
How to Respond to a Reason Code 62 Chargeback
A code 62 claim was hard to beat. The cardholder says the card was fake, and a fake card does not have the real cardholder's signature or PIN on it.
Still, some replies could work. If you could show the sale ran on a chip reader with a chip approval, that pointed away from a counterfeit card. A receipt with a matching signature helped in some cases. Proof that the same customer had shopped with you before could also help.
If your terminal was chip capable and the card was dipped, say so in your reply. If the sale was swiped because your terminal was not chip ready, the loss often stuck with you under the liability shift rules.
Answer by the deadline on the notice. A late reply loses even a strong case.
The VCR Initiative and the Retirement of Reason Code 62
As part of the VCR Initiative, Visa consolidated its 22 legacy reason codes into four dispute categories. The old code 62 did not survive as its own code. Its work moved into the new fraud category.
Under the new rules, a counterfeit card present fraud claim lands in the 10 Fraud category. The old codes were retired, but the claims they covered did not go away. Cardholders still dispute charges they never made, and merchants still have to answer them.
If you have an old case file with code 62 on it, read it under the old rules. If you have a new dispute, look at the current fraud codes instead. See 10.1 EMV liability shift counterfeit fraud for chip related counterfeit claims, or 10.3 other fraud card present environment for other in person fraud. For claims where the card was not present, see 10.4 other fraud card absent environment.