Most companies are unconcerned about credit card theft until it happens to them. If you sell online or by e-mail, your company is more likely to go bankrupt owing to fraudulent credit card orders. Given the increased reliance on plastic money, credit card theft is extremely damaging. Even consumers, fail to take basic precautions to avoid credit card theft.
While most people think of credit card fraud as identity theft, account hijacking, or fraudsters buying online using stolen credit card information, there is a lot more to such data theft. Hackers conduct fraud in several ways and continually look for new ways to access sensitive data. This is especially in a corporate set-up where these fraudsters look to hack into systems and present huge security threats to the IT infrastructure and operations of the organization. As per research and records identity fraud affected 14.4 million people in the United States in 2018, with credit card fraud still being one of the most prevalent concerns.
In this article, we’ll go through ways to avoid credit card theft in this post.
How Does Credit Card Fraud Affect Businesses?
Credit card theft in organizations, unlike personal credit card fraud, may affect a larger number of customers as well as impact the reputation and image of the organization. Here are some reasons why protecting credit accounts is so vital for company owners.
Stolen funds
Unauthorized or stolen funds can have a huge impact on the finances of the organization and further, result in serious cash flow issues. It may be difficult to meet financial responsibilities such as company working capital and operation cost. It can also make it difficult for a business to satisfy other responsibilities, such as leasing obligations, market research fees, and insurance payments. Stolen funds can have an overall huge burden on business and can at times even result in shut shop of business in the worst-case scenario.
Damaged reputation
Incidents of Data Breach, Data theft, and stolen credentials can have a huge impact on businesses and their relationship with their customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. The reputational damage is irreversible and can have a severe impact on the business in general.
Now that we know how credit card fraud can impact business, let us learn how to detect credit card fraud.
How to Detect Credit Card Fraud?
Wondering how to detect credit card fraud? Here are some ways that will help you identify credit card frauds. Look for suspicious customer behavior.
Make sure your shop assistants and salespeople are paying attention to consumer actions as they travel throughout the shop during the transaction itself before processing a transaction. Here are some tips to follow suspicious credit card theft behavior.
- Fidgety, anxious, or uneasy
- Making a purchase that is much more expensive than your ordinary purchase (3x higher or more.)
- Buying a large number of expensive products at once, regardless of price, quantity, or color
- Taking an excessive amount of time or focusing ‘too much on their signature
- Acting hastily at the point of sale
Understand what to look for in a fraudulent credit card
Understanding what to check for on a credit card is crucial for avoiding scams. Before receiving a card payment, have your co-workers search for these common signs of a fraudulent card.
- Is there credit card information on the card that is valid? Do the numbers appear to be straight and spaced evenly?
- Is there any damage or demagnetization on the magnetic strip? This is done by criminals to force you to manually enter the data.
- Is the EMV chip present? If the card is fresh (with an expiry date of more than two years), it should have a chip as well.
- After the payment, do the final four digits on the cards on the invoice match the numeric figures on the real physical cards?
Ways of Protection from Credit Card Fraud
Fortunately, there are several preventative measures that you can take to reduce the risk of credit card theft. These techniques will help you spot suspicious activity before it becomes catastrophic.
- Regularly review statements
- Keep your credit card and its sensitive information safe
- Access to business credit cards should be restricted.
- Keep your passwords up to date.
- When taking orders, be cautious
- Safeguard your credit card information
- Never make credit card information public
- Immediately report a lost or stolen card
Read on to find out more.
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Regularly review statements
Unauthorized activity may be taking place without your notice because crooks wouldn’t need a real company credit card to cheat the system. Fraudulent transactions on your business credit card account could be the first sign that you’ve been duped. Make a habit of reviewing your statements frequently to catch any unexpected charges. To make the task simple, do weekly reviews using internet banking tools. Any problems with your credit card should be immediately reported.
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Keep your credit cards and their sensitive information safe
When it comes to preventing company credit card fraud, the best defense is prevention. Make sure the company credit card is kept safe and only used when absolutely essential.
Conmen using unlawful gadgets known as scanners can be thwarted by using purses with built-in strip-reader security and demanding an EMV chip card. These devices obtain intelligence from a credit card’s magnetic strip, which is then encoded into fake cards.
Don’t give out your credit card information to somebody you don’t know. If you are buying something online, make sure the website is genuine. The presence of a little padlock icon in your browser indicates that a website is safe.
Give your personal or credit card details over the phone only if you are confident that they are genuine.
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Restrict business credit card access
The fewer people who have access to a company’s credit cards, the less exposed it is to financial fraud due to human error. Only the most trustworthy members of staff should have access, and procedures for reviewing, approving, and monitoring purchase requests should be in effect.
You can also reap the benefits of your credit card firm’s numerous security measures. Automated expense tracking may be one of them. It monitors your spending. Credit limits can also be placed on employee cards.
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Keep your passwords up to date
When utilizing internet banking systems and software, create unique and difficult passwords. To reduce the chance of hackers acquiring access to the system, change them frequently.
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When taking orders, be cautious
If you run an online firm, establish procedures to reduce the danger of accepting online orders due to fraudulent transactions. When taking money, gather all credit card details, such as the purchaser’s number and address. This will prevent criminals from placing orders using stolen credit card information. Any orders with various billing and delivery addresses should be avoided, especially if they are for a large upcoming order.
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Safeguard your credit card information
It’s another easy way to avoid fraudulent activity. The whole credit card number is frequently printed on credit card billing invoices. When using a credit card, always ensure to destroy the statement before throwing it away. Credit cards that have expired or been canceled should be destroyed.
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Never make credit card information public
Always be on the lookout for scammers and malicious scams. You must avoid giving away credit card numbers and other critical credit card details via phone, email, or text messages. Credit card fraudsters frequently act as new product issuers or distributors of enticing business opportunities to dupe unwary users into divulging critical credit card details. To prevent misuse, make sure you memorize your PIN and update it regularly.
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Immediately report a lost or stolen card
A stolen or lost credit card should be reported to the service supplier as quickly as possible. As a customer, keep in mind that the sooner you report a missing card, the faster you can avoid credit card theft. Keep the customer support number for your card company in your phone directory to prevent delays in notifying your bank in the event of credit card theft or loss. In such situations, only early notification can prevent credit card fraud.
Conclusion
Credit card fraud can be costly to your organization. However, by following these tips to avoid fraud in the first place, you can still save money and effort by not having to pay for any activity or product you did not purchase. The prevalence of cyber attacks must motivate you to strengthen your online security strategies. Remember, businesses that are careless about it can end up losing their money as well as clients.
