APP Alert FAQs

APP Alerts are a benefit of membership in APP. Alerts harken back to some of the earliest days of APP and why the organization was created.  It provides a mechanism for members to share information with peers in the industry in support of our efforts to maintain the integrity of the payment ecosystem. Over the years additional Alert categories have been added, and APP Alerts were sometimes referred to as "Forms."

At a high level, a member selects an Alert category (see subsequent question) and fills out the related form. The forms are moderated by volunteers who check for compliance with our antitrust compliance program and other requirements.  Once reviewed, the forms are released to members who have access to that Alert category. 

In the past two years, we made significant changes to APP Alerts.  The new environment provides opportunities to add new features in the future and more easily manage member access.  In the future, we can also add additional areas to support committees, special interest groups, and other member subsets.  

Here is a more complete list of some of the changes to expect:

• The APP Alerts community uses a third-party provider with enhanced functionality and security to implement this benefit.  When you go to alerts you will be redirected to alerts.paymentpros.org.  
• Alert categories now retain past posts.  
• Members can respond to unrestricted alert categories and see the responses of others.
• Changes you make to your profile while in the Alerts area will not port back to your main APP account.  Changes made to your main APP account profile may take up to 24 hours to appear in your Alerts area profile.
• APP will utilize the banners on paymentpros.org to provide notifications on the status of the Alert system.

While it may seem like everything changed, some things are still the same.  Here are a list of some of the aspects of Alerts that are unchanged at this time:

• To adhere to antitrust and other legal requirements, all alerts posts must be moderated and approved before they can be distributed to members.
• Moderating posts are done by a small group of staff and volunteers.  During some periods, this may create delays in reviewing and posting content.  
• Some alert categories remain restricted due to the sensitive nature of the content. These categories require an additional application for access.
• You will only see those Alert categories open to your membership type and profile.
• Members must log in to the MAC website and be validated as a current member with appropriate rights to access the Alerts community.
• Most Alert categories still will have forms to submit initial posts to provide standardized content.  Maintaining this feature was a request of existing members and users.
• Members must still adhere to all legal and antitrust requirements and guidelines before posting or replying to an Alert message.

APP Alerts is a benefit for APP members only.  Our goal is to provide a trusted network for members to communicate with other members on topics of interest to the industry.  If you would like more information on membership in APP and its benefits, please click here.

After evaluating several options, APP chose to implement Alerts as a separate system.  It is integrated with our main platform.  In most instances, after the first time logging into APP Alerts, you should be able to connect to this system in the future with just a single sign-on through the APP website.  

Yes.  APP Alerts are on a separate system integrated with our main member platform.  This allows us to provide some additional security as well as new features for members over time.

Yes.  From within the APP Alerts application, select an alert group (category).  Within that group, you can see a button labeled Emails with your current opt-in/out status for that category.  Select that button and you can stop all emails or make other changes to your notifications.

NOTE:  This does not apply to Restricted Alerts (see later entry).

If you opted out of APP alerts prior to April 10, 2023, then yes, you may need to opt out of Alerts a second time.  Some opt-in/out data was lost as we changed domains as part of our branding change.

There are currently two main types of alerts: 

Unrestricted:  Open to all Members.  Alerts in these categories will be kept for member review and community responses may also be posted publicly and kept.

Restricted:  Restricted to approved members only based on job role and organization type.  Alerts submitted in these categories are now retained in the APP community as are responses to the community.  Members wanting access to these categories must apply and meet the board-approved criteria.

Additional Future Categories:  Additional categories may be added in the future based on member interest or need.  Some categories currently under consideration include:

• People News -- Announce new hires, promotions, retirements, and job changes
• SIG-Specific -- Community groups for specific Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• User Groups -- User group communities for partner organizations

Open to all Members.  Alerts in these categories will be kept for member review and community responses may also be posted publicly and kept.

• Ask APP Members -- A general inquiry to members from members
• Upcoming Events -- Information on a coming event of interest to members
• Opportunities (Job Postings) -- Information on a job opportunity

These alerts are restricted to approved members based on job role and organization type.  Members wanting access to these categories must apply and meet the board-approved criteria.

• MATCH -- Message reporting a specific fraud incident and coded with a MATCH reason code
• Alert [Fraud] -- Message warning about a possible or specific fraud incident or pattern
• Merchant Information Request -- Message requesting information about a specific merchant
• Agent ISO Inquiry -- Message requesting information about a specific ISO

Restricted alerts are granted by the Membership Committee based on criteria defined by the Board.  They are primarily determined based on a combination of job role and organization type.  If you have additional questions about access to restricted alerts, please contact the Membership Committee.

Yes.  A very general quick guide is available and pending help from volunteers, we will create one more specific to our environment.  

Partially.  Changes made to your profile on the member compass will migrate over to APP Alerts when the two systems sync.  For security reasons, we do not allow data from APP Alerts to modify member data within our main systems.  Thus, changes made to your profile in APP Alerts are only visible within the Alerts system.