Tips for Preventing Credit Fraud

A lot of anti-fraud advice is directed at individual customers. We are warned to never share our card details, and to be wary of clicking a link on an email that purports to be ‘from the bank’. Those emails are frequently scams and phishing attempts that will take you to a clone website and try to harvest your information or trick you into downloading malware or keyloggers onto your device.

Instead, go to the main website of your bank or service provider. If the problem is genuine, you can log in and deal with it there instead of following a potentially misleading link. But this is individual safety information. How can you – as a business – protect your brand and your business from credit card fraud?

Use a reliable payment provider

Make sure your merchant account provider is well-established, has good testimonials from former customers, and uses the highest available level of encryption.  Make sure you use a merchant provider that can assist you with becoming PCI compliant, including maintaining features such as end-to-end encryption and physical protection of customers’ card data, which deters identity theft attempts. PCI compliance also includes written security measures, strong passwords, tough firewalls, consistent monitoring, and testing of data access and security standards.

Be careful about your billing names

Your business probably has lots of different services and sub-brands under it. Maybe all your ventures have a single holding company and a single bank account, even if each individual enterprise has its own name, website, or social media footprint. Make sure these names lign up in your billing system. Any confusion could trigger confusion or even customer chargebacks.

Check your statements religiously

In the same way that customers scour their statements, you should too. This way, you can spot any errors like duplicate billing and raise them perhaps even before the customer does, cutting off potential problems before they occur. It can also help you identify any suspicious, potentially fraudulent transactions.

For more information on credit card fraud protection for business, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.