Fraud prevention for your online business in 2021
Transaction or payment fraud is not a new thing for businesses more precisely online businesses.
Fraud is not limited to only brute force attacks or ransomware, it can come in the form of simple activities like phishing, social media attacks, identity theft, etc.
As a business owner, it is important to implement a fraud prevention technique and integrate it in your payment acceptance system.
You can always build one or there are many third-party solution providers who provide some excellent fraud prevention solutions.
But the common mistake or more like misconception is that fraud prevention is a one-time thing, you just set up the prevention tool and you are set up to do secure transactions.
This is so not the case and this may be the biggest security risk you are taking.
New technology and —- make fraud an ever-evolving process. Fraudsters search and implement many techniques to scam customers as well as merchants.
Fraud analyzing tools and fraud analysts use the same thing to analyze the fraud pattern and that is data.
A merchant can be at a loss while trying to understand all the jargon. But efficient is necessary and as a merchant, you should at least know basics know-hows of fraud prevention
So, what it is exactly do you need to look for to prevent fraud?
When it comes to reducing fraud to the maximum extent, smart decisions are all you need to make.
Identify phishing attempts –
Most of the phishing attempts are done by email or SMS, given how easily accessible email and SMS are.
These messages are always easy to spot but with time, the phishing techniques are also evolving forcing us to keep them in check.
Fraudsters may get personal and social information from social media sites and use this information to create convincing phishing content. Though there are span filters when it comes to any email hosting page, as a merchant you and your employees need to keep a sharp eye on email content. phishing comes in many forms such as keylogging, link manipulation, span, spear phishing, trojan, etc. It will be very helpful for your business if you alongside your staff also educate your customers on the basics of phishing.
Next to email phishing comes span and spoofed SMS and calls. In this case, fraudsters gather your information via your social media activities and target you based on that information.
Whenever you are asked for any information or are contacted out of the blue, be sure to verify the identity of the caller.
Watch out for these telltale signs of fraudulent phone calls:
- The caller tries to create a sense of urgency.
- The call or text is purposely confusing.
- They call you out of the blue and claim to be from your bank, a government agency, or tech support.
- They ask you to provide personal or financial information or perform an action of your device.
These frauds are based on social engineering and the only tool you need to prevent these is social awareness and an observant eye.
Besides social engineering spans, email and SMS are used for malware circulation. Malware is malicious software.
Malware comes in forms like spyware, virus, ransomware, trojans, etc.
It can,
- Steal personal, financial, or business information.
- Take control of the device or data for extortion.
- Turn the infected device into a “zombie computer”.
- Business espionage or sabotage
The saying prevention is better than cure, goes perfectly with protection against malware.
Here is your checklist that will minimize your chances against malware,
- Don’t trust strangers online
- Double-check your downloads
- Get an ad-blocker! Malvertising
- Careful where you browse
- Installing powerful and reliable antimalware softwares
- Installing anti virus softwares
- Keep your operating system and all software up to date.
- Backup your system and files regularly.
- Avoiding shady websites, pirated media, open WiFi
- Maintain good password hygien and online hygien
A clear set of regulations for you, your employees, and all the third parties helping out you in running your business can help to minimize the fraud risk.
Flagging unusual activity, analyzing transaction patterns, identifying high-risk ip addresses are some of the preventive measures.
A business can create a checklist and can share it with its peers. Every staff member should understand the basics of fraud prevention tools integrated with the business model and should know the basics of the identification of fraudulent messages and transactions. The fraud prevention techniques can help to save a tremendous amount of money and chargebacks.
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