The holiday's are full of holly and jolly — and fraud. With this time of the year being one of the highest times reported for fraudulent activity, how are you keeping your business protected? Like most, you might not know where to start. Explore the different ways to keep your small business safe during the holiday season! Watch our video to learn more!
FACT: Online fraud increases by 22% during the holiday season. Here are 9 ways for you to stay safe!
#1. Accept EMV Chip Card Technology at Your Business
For card-present transactions you want to provide your customers with EMV-capable devices to allow them to make EMV chip card purchases. EMV chip cards are currently the most secure card available to consumers and an upgrade to this type of device is simple and affordable.
#2. Use a Payment Gateway to Securely Accept Online Payments
A payment gateway enables you to accept credit cards online (a highly susceptible channel for fraud) with helpful fraud screening tools that are necessary to expose and flag fraud when it occurs.
#3. Use a Customer Vault to Store Payment Details for Online Payments
Plenty of small businesses depend on customer vaults and recurring billing to run simple, repeat transactions and offer convenient auto-billing. This is extremely useful when you run payments online. Thankfully, each service is powered by fraud-resistant tokenization technology! This allows an online payment to be processed without giving cybercriminals a card number, account number or an identity to steal.
#4. Handle Chargebacks Efficiently
It’s recommended that if you suspect a fraudulent transaction, to not run it or you should void it until you’re comfortable. If you’re skeptical of a transaction that hasn’t been batched out yet, it’s encouraged that you void it. If you refund the order, you’ll still be charged processing fees for the original transaction and then run the risk of a chargeback.
#5. Request Card Security Codes to Avoid Accepting Stolen Credit Cards
For card-not-present orders, this is specifically very important. When requesting card security codes, it authenticates that the customer is the one making the purchase. It's meant to verify that a customer has the physical credit card while making a purchase.
#6. Stay Current — Outdated Software Makes Invasion Easier for Hackers
Most of the time, hackers count on businesses to have outdated software. One of the easiest ways to avoid a breach of data is to update your software! Make sure that you put in the effort and get this done to avoid getting hacked.
#7. Educate Yourself on the Basics of Cybersecurity to Protect Your Business
Learning about the basics of cybersecurity will help put you in a position to operate your business better and keep you aware of a potential cyberattack and how to handle it. These basics will help prepare you for any situation you might encounter.
#8. Maintain Regular Security Check-Ups to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly
Staying consistent and having regular check-ups really helps avoid any fraudulent activity that could occur. It's easy for you or your staff to get tired of putting these practices in place, but it's important that you keep up with it so you can reduce the risk of fraud in your business.
#9. Refresh Your Practices & Stay Consistent
Taking the time to update old practices and refresh them with more updated solutions gives you an advantage. Keeping your cybersecurity practices fresh will help you avoid a lot of issues that could potentially arise from out of date procedures.
Fraud prevention practices are always great to instill in your business, and not just during the holidays! Have your best security practices in place ahead of time to avoid damage control. After all, it's better to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to fraud prevention!