A survey conducted in 2019 found that over 33% of the US adult population had at least one experience with identity fraud. This affects, not just consumers, but also merchants, who are the ones held liable for these fraudulent transactions.
Now, unfortunately, this is just another one of the more frustrating realities of living in such a technologically advanced age — with the ever-evolving technologies, there’s just nothing that can be done to fully protect you from the actions of cybercriminals online. Instead, what we recommend is that you put up protections that will allow you to reduce the risks of fraud for your business:
Fraud Susceptibility in 2020
Just how susceptible is your business to fraud? Well, that depends.
As mentioned, fraud is an ever-evolving issue. Cybercriminals are just as motivated to crack existing protections as you are to make use of them. So, with the issues constantly changing over the years or months, you might find that you’re protected from one type of fraud and yet incredibly vulnerable to another type of fraud.
For the most part, however, there are two main types of fraud that you need to protect yourself from. Or rather, two main reasons why people commit fraudulent identity theft:
● To obtain a product or service for free
● To obtain funds from your business
Whichever their reason might be, just know that there are ways of protecting yourself from both.
Methods of Protecting Your Business from Fraud
Obtain a Secure Merchant Account
The first thing that you should do to protect your business from fraud is to secure your merchant account. If you’re unfamiliar with merchant accounts, they are a type of bank account that will allow you to accept payments via credit and/or debit cards. They’re provided by merchant processors, like Platinum Payment Systems (PlatPay) — which is a payment processing service provider that facilitates the transfer of funds for you in a secure way. All the while providing you support and extra protection against chargebacks and fraud.
Just in general, making sure that you obtain a merchant account from a reputable merchant processor like Platinum Payment Systems is a great way of establishing some early and standard protections for your business.
Train Employees to Identify Suspicious Activities
Much like with getting a merchant account, training your employees to be able to identify suspicious, potentially fraudulent activity is a must.
Devote some time and resources to make sure that your employees understand the types of risks your business might be facing and educate them on what to do whenever they see any potentially fraudulent activities. The better-informed everyone is about the types of suspicious activities they should be looking out for, the safer your business will be. This tactic should also help your team find solutions to deal with past incidents more efficiently.
Secure your Computer Systems
The next thing that will need some extra attention is your computer systems. Suffice to say, the security protocols set up on your systems should be able to withstand the threat of cybercriminals. Don’t just ‘set it and forget it’ either.
As we keep saying, technology is ever evolving, and hackers are incredibly motivated to find ways to cheat the system. So, you’ll need to be just as motivated as they are when setting up and updating protections on the computer systems that are used for your business.
Practice Good Hiring Processes
To be blunt, sometimes, the threat can come, not externally, but internally. So, make sure that you are making smart hiring choices for your business. Employ background checks so that you can be protected from threats from the inside just as you are on the outside.
Final Thoughts: How to Protect Your Business from Fraud
Protecting your business from fraud requires a solid foundation. So, don’t focus too much on the smaller aspects until you get this foundation right.
As mentioned, while you can’t protect your business 100% from the risk of fraud, it’s not impossible to reduce the risks with just a little bit of effort in the beginning, to make sure that your security is strong from the get-go.
