How to Protect Your Business from Credit Card Fraud
The idea of card fraud is frightening, both for businesses and customers. But with swiping becoming a standard part of life, there are more mechanisms in place to protect us. Let’s look at some tactics we can use to keep our cards and our money safe.
- Double-check encryption levels
The form of credit card fraud many of us are most afraid of is hacking (in the form of skimming, phishing, or intercepted data). End-to-end encryption ensures this can’t happen, because even if fraudsters could somehow access your data, it would read like gibberish they can’t translate or interpret. Find out the types of encryption your payment processor is using.
- Ask about PCI compliance
Your merchant account provider can help you to stay compliant with the requirements of the latest PCI (Payment Card Industry) security standards.
- Confirm your billing name
Business registration can be tricky. You have your individual name, your business name, your brand name, your product name, and your URL. Depending on the registration process, these could even be five separate legal entities. So when your customer buys from you, the name they see on their card statement may not be the one they recognize (e.g. Boss Beauty Soap from hipstercosmetics.com owned by Young ‘n Hip Enterprises.) If a customer sees a name on their credit card statement with which they are unfamiliar, this could cause the customer to cancel their purchase, so check that your billing name matches the name of your establishment in a way that your customers will recognize.
- Display a clear refund policy
Sometimes, a customer will regret their purchase decision and/or freak out. Instead of requesting a refund, they cancel the transaction, which leads to chargeback fees. This is sometimes called “friendly fraud.” Customers opt for it when they think the refund process is too complex. Displaying your return policy in a highly visible location (and being available for queries) makes it easier to deal with you than deal with the bank, saving you from penalties and punitive costs. Even if your returns policy is “no returns,” then making it clear that all sales are final in a prominent way before the purchase is completed can help prevent customers from feeling cheated later when they find out that you will not accept an item offered for return.
For more tips on protecting your business from credit card fraud, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.