With the rise of online fraud, it has become exceedingly important for entrepreneurs to know how to keep their businesses and their customers safe in today’s digital world. With the pandemic occurring, all businesses have now moved online which made things easier and harder almost simultaneously.

The great thing is that we have more options available. The bad thing is that no matter how good your cyber security efforts are – cyber threats are keeping their pace, evolving alongside.

Online fraud statistics

Online threats to your business and your customers are lurking everywhere. From spammy emails to various data breaches, stealing your credit card information -It’s no secret that online fraud is a serious problem. Last year, consumers reported total losses of a staggering $5.8 billion in 2021, Approximately  2.8 million people filled a complaint regarding online frauds last year which is an all-time record. When it comes to all-size businesses, it is estimated that every dollar online businesses lose by fraud costs them $3.60.

How to protect your assets from fraud as a business owner?

As a business owner, you are always looking for ways to protect your assets and reduce fraud. 

For starters, it is important that you are on the same page with your employees. You need to conduct a thorough education about the potential threats just to show them how serious even the most benign things are. Someone can open a link from the phishing email for example. 

A lot of online businesses were obliged to pay ransom to retrieve their stolen data, but the sad reality is that in most cases they’ve managed to retrieve only 45 percent of their data. Data is the lifeblood of your business and it helps you understand the patterns of behavior of your customers. 

Educating your employees and performing security audits can help you with preventing such scenarios. It is also important to establish a strong password policy across the entire company. One weak password can compromise the entire company so you need to add an additional layer of protection – a great way is to implement 2-step verification when logging into your business accounts. 

Protecting your finances

When it comes to protecting your financial assets, you know that there are numerous threats out there. Stealing your credit card information is the most common. A large amount of money won’t just disappear into the thin air like in the movies. It’s about the smaller transactions that can mean fraudulent behavior because they will definitely go under your radar. A virtual credit card can help. This industry is booming at the moment.  A virtual credit card is a credit card that is not attached to a physical card. Instead, it is linked to your bank account and can be used anywhere that accepts credit cards. If you are not sure, compare all pros and cons to know the benefits of using a virtual credit card.

There are many benefits of using a virtual credit card for your business. First, it can help you keep track of your spending. You can see exactly where your money is going and where you need to cut back. Second, it can help you prevent fraud. If someone tries to use your virtual credit card without your permission, you can cancel the transaction immediately. Your employees can use your credit card and buy things for the office and you won’t be stressing about spending limits or potential misuses.

This can be also a great tactic for saving your personal data from the vendors. In some cases, vendors can use this vulnerability to their advantage and they can charge you for whatever they want. The rule is that the more people know your credit card information -the risk goes higher and a virtual credit card can help you resolve this issue.  Finally, it can help you build up your credit history. By using a virtual credit card and paying off your balance each month, you can slowly but surely improve your credit score.

How to protect your customers?

One way is to use an address verification service (AVS). AVS is a type of fraud prevention service that checks the billing address provided by a customer against the address on file with the credit card issuer. If the addresses don’t match, the transaction is declined.

AVS is an effective way to prevent fraud because it’s very difficult for criminals to obtain a valid credit card with a matching billing address. However, AVS is not foolproof. Some businesses choose not to use AVS because it can also lead to false declines, which occur when legitimate transactions are declined because the addresses don’t match.

If you decide to use AVS, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure you understand how AVS works and what information you need from your customers in order for it to work properly. Second, be prepared for false declines and have a plan in place for handling them. 

The next step that can help protect your customer’s fund is Card Verification Code. This code exists only on the physical copy of your card and businesses can’t store this type of information. These are three digits only, but they can make a significant difference when it comes to proper consumer protection. It is a level 1 strategy for defense but it can be useful and not hard to implement. Another layer of protection for more secure payment processing is 3d payment – at the end of the transaction and after they passed all the basic levels – they will be asked to enter a number that cybercriminals can’t know.

Secure payments enhanced website security, everything matters equally. Losing your data, your financial assets, or your customers is stressful enough so never take even benign signs of fraud for granted. 

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