Fraud – including cyber scams, identity theft, chargeback fraud, payment and banking fraud, and more – poses significant risks to businesses of all sizes, such as financial losses, data losses, damage to reputation, and even legal repercussions. Incidents of business fraud have been skyrocketing over the past three years. In fact, according to a Juniper research report, e-commerce retailers alone are at risk of losing over $48 billion globally this year due to online payment fraud, a 16% increase in just 12 months.

Protecting Against Payment and Banking Fraud

Payment and banking fraud is a huge threat that small businesses face, whether in the form of bounced checks, chargeback fraud (when a card owner falsely disputes a charge to have it reversed), unauthorized transactions, stolen credit card numbers, etc.

Some of the ways to help prevent this kind of fraud are:

• Train employees on fraud detection and prevention
• Enforce strong password policies
• Use secure and encrypted payment methods for online transactions
• Partner with a secure payment processor
• Limit employee access to financial systems and sensitive data
• Invest in fraud detection and prevention software
• Set up alerts for unusual transaction patterns or suspicious activities
• Establish a clear and confidential way for employees to report fraud
• Consider obtaining fraud insurance
• Develop a comprehensive incident response plan.

When the volume of ACH transactions for your business increases, so does the potential for fraudulent activity. Valley’s ACH Positive Pay Service gives you the ability to review all incoming debits before they are cleared for deposit, block specific transactions from being processed, and prevent potentially fraudulent electronic withdrawals or credits posted to your account. With custom filters, you can choose to block suspicious ACH debits and credits until you’ve had a chance to authorize them.

If you think your business has been the victim of fraud, report it immediately at the Federal Trade Commission’s fraud-fighting site at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Fraud Prevention

The theft of digital information via cyber fraud is the most reported fraud against businesses, which is why it’s important to put a solid cybersecurity strategy in place to protect your customers’ information, your business’ reputation and avoid legal issues or financial loss. Here are some key tips recommended by the FCC to safeguard your business against cyberattacks.

• Establish and enforce cybersecurity policies and procedures to protect customer data and other sensitive information
• Continuously train employees to recognize the latest scams and how to avoid them
• Update all devices to the latest security software, web browsers, and operating systems and use anti-virus software and firewalls
• Utilize encryption software for mobile devices used by remote workers, and ensure all employees have separate user accounts so you can track any suspicious activity
• Back up all business data regularly and store it in the Cloud
• Secure WIFI networks with SSID and password protection
• Work with banks and credit card processors to safeguard payment information

Work with Valley

At Valley, we are committed to protecting our customers against cybercrime, identity theft, fraud, and any kind of financial exploitation. We take our customers’ security very seriously and take significant measures to protect the security of your bank accounts and your personal information. If you believe you have been a victim of fraud – contact us right away. We can help.