Based on a study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, it was found that nearly one half of small businesses have been victims of fraud during the life of their business. In fact, for every occurrence, the average cost was $114,000.
Even if you accidentally accept a fraudulent payment, you are at risk for being responsible financially for this loss. Numerous fraudulent payments can mean numerous chargebacks, fees, and even more threatening, a permanent damage to your brand’s reputation.
How To Protect Your e-Commerce Store From Fraud
The good news is that you can take certain steps so that you can reduce your risk as well as protect both your customers and yourself from digital assaults.
To keep your e-Commerce store secure and keep hackers at bay, read on.
- Check your transactions daily: At this point, you have become well aware of your customers’ spending habits and buying patterns. Always check your accounts as well as transactions for any warning signs such as inconsistent billing, shipping information, and the physical location of your customers. Utilize tools that track IP addresses from customers and to check for addresses and countries known for a prevalence of scammers.
- Set limits: After reviewing your order and revenue trends, you can place limits on the number of purchases and amount that you can accept from certain customers in one day. This can minimize incidences of fraud.
- Use AVS: Address Verification Systems or AVS serve to compare the numbers of the billing address stored within a credit card to the address found on file with the credit card company. This fraud tool can come as part of the overall payment processing solution, but do check with that company first.
- Request the CVV: The Card Verification Value or the CVV is the three to four-digit security code that is found in the back of most credit cards. PCI regulations keep you from storing CVV data, the credit card number, and the customer’s name. However, this is what makes CVV so useful. Fraudsters are unable to retrieve this information unless they steal the actual credit card.
- Get stricter password requirements: Hackers have become increasingly more sophisticated in their ability to crack passwords. Ensure that you require customers to enter in an eight-character, alphanumeric password that also asks for one capitalization and one “special” character. Be customer-focused by explaining that doing this extra effort ensures their safety.
- All software and programs need to be up to date. Running the latest version of your operating system will ensure that it will protect you from viruses and malware. Also, install and update anti-malware and anti-spyware software to prevent future attacks. It is best to get the “business-grade” version and not the free or “customer strength” version as these will not be sufficient.
In Summary
Many e-Commerce merchants have plenty of obstacles to overcome during the lifetime of their business. From executing the right marketing strategies to draw first time customers to gaining repeat customers, there are so many difficult decisions to make.
However, one aspect that should never be overlooked is the safety of your e-Commerce business. As the number of fraudsters attacking e-Commerce businesses continue to skyrocket, you need to take a proactive approach to ensure you are doing everything necessary to ensure you and your customers’ sensitive information remain safe.