Online frauds are a common thing and cybersecurity is necessary. All said and done frauds are one of the major concerns of all e-commerce businesses and it doesn’t matter if you’re an e-commerce giant or a small-sized retailer having an online store as well, you’re at risk. The risk of hacking and phishing is always there.
Credit card frauds and fraudulent transactions happening on your websites can risk your reputation because customers do want secure transactions when they trust your sites with their credit card details. So, if your site is not recently updated then you will be risking a lot of customers’ details in the hands of the hackers.
What you can do at your end to minimize the probability of your website getting hacked or the fraudsters stealing your consumer’s personal and payment details from your database matters the most. You must pay attention to keep updating your website.
Who’s at Risk of Online Fraud?
It is always advisable to frequently update your website because hackers always choose to attack sites that are not updated for a long time and especially those owned by small businesses. You might think that since you have a small business why will a hacker choose your website? You couldn’t be more wrong.
Hackers aim for sites that are not regularly maintained and are owned by small businesses. So, if you are a small e-commerce store you should know the importance of regular maintenance of an eCommerce website. All the e-commerce stores that store their customer’s details are at the risk of losing those data in the wrong hands if there is any security lapse.
Installing the latest security patches on your site will help you to safeguard the website from the attacks of malicious software and thus, safeguarding the customer’s data from getting into the wrong hands.
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Some Tell-e-Tale Signs of Online Credit Card Fraud with Helpful Tips to Prevent it from Happening
How will you know when any credit card fraud is happening on your site? Some signs give a clue and you should pay attention to these signs. Any abnormal transaction pattern that deters from the normal purchase behavior of your client is a sure shot signal and is enough to alert you.
Mostly the online fraud that happens is of 2 types. One is when hackers will hack your whole website and in the other one, there is theft of the personal details of your consumers from the website. Specifically, the credit card and debit card details.
Fraudsters hack your website’s database to get a hold of your consumer’s username, credit card details, and passwords, and get access to all the personal details like address, etc.
Tips to Prevent Credit Card Fraud
1. Follow PCI Standards.
The payment card industry security standards council has set some best practices to be followed by all online e-commerce store owners. These measures are important to be taken to prevent fraud of any kind from occurring.
Complying with these standards is compulsory for all businesses because these are important to keep online fraud in check. For complete information on the PCI standards, please visit the PCI security standard website to get the details.
2. Use the Right Tools and Processes.
You can manage the risk by implementing the right tools and processes. A great deal of security is offered to your site and it’s essential to keep your business and your customers safe. Go and ask your WooCommerce development service provider if your website can be more secure.
3. You Should also Monitor Transactions.
Being aware of the buying patterns of your most frequent customers is also a good way to deal with online fraud. You can monitor your customer’s account for any inconsistent billing and shipping.
These must be considered red flags and as a preventive measure, you should track the physical location of the customer. Some tools can detect the IP addresses of the customers and you can check if that’s located in any country that is a base of the fraudsters.
4. Limiting the Amount that Can be Spent in a Day.
This is also a way to keep a fraud check. Keeping an upper limit on the amount that can be spent on your website in a day is also a better way to check frauds causing a lot of loss.
5. Opting for an Address Verification System.
It helps compare the billing address with the address in the records of the credit card company. If the IP address is from overseas and is not matching with the address on the credit card.
You can also restrict these IP addresses if they belong to countries where you don’t offer shipping. There are settings made available by some e-commerce software platforms that allow you to block irrelevant IP addresses and you need not do any customization for it.
Be watchful for the differences in billing and shipping addresses and especially when the customer is insisting on expedited shipping. Sometimes different billing and shipping addresses mean that your customer is purchasing a gift for someone from your site and thus, sending it to a different address.
This always doesn’t mean fraud but if the billing amount is too large then you should call the customer to match up their phone number.
6. Mandatory Use of CVV.
One of the best methods to prevent the occurrence of online fraud is by making it compulsory to write down the CVV. CVV is the three or four-digit codes that are printed on the backside of the credit or debit cards.
One good thing to mention on here is that PCI prevents storing the CVV code. So, it will not be stored in your database. Now, this makes it unattainable to the hackers and fraudsters as they don’t have your customer’s physical credit or debit card in their hands so, they will not get access to the CVV code.
Thus, compulsory use of CVV code in every transaction makes it a very effective security measure.
7. Strong Passwords.
Ask your customers to use complicated passwords for logging into their accounts. A password setup should require the use of at least one capitalization and one special character. Better passwords ensure better protection from fraud and hacking.
Most of the sites ask to maintain a password of at least eight characters which includes the use of one capitalization and one special character the least. These passwords are recognized as strong and it’s not easy to hack them.
8. Regularly Update and Maintain your Website.
One of the best measures to take is safeguarding your e-commerce website so that no hacking happens in the very first place. You might be wondering how this can be achieved.
There is a reason that you are advised to regularly update your website and make sure that your website is well-equipped with all the necessary security patches. Keeping your site well updated is the best way to protect it from the latest viruses and malware software.
If your software is outdated then its vulnerabilities make it easy to get attacked. By installing business-grade anti-malware and anti-spyware software you can prevent your website.
If you are running on the Magento eCommerce platform, Use our Magento 2 upgrade service to update your website to the latest version As this is currently the best e-commerce platform available. It’s well-equipped with all the necessary advanced security features.
9. Be Observant for Any Suspicion Worthy Random Email Address used to Create an Account on Your Web Site.
Now, last but not least watch out for suspicious-looking email accounts.
Checking the email address that has been used in placing the orders is helpful. Any email address carrying numbers and alphabets in random orders is a red flag.
10. Limit the Acceptable Number of Declined Transactions.
You can limit the number of incorrect attempts there should only be a limited number of transactions allowed. This will help in limiting the chances of any fraudulent transactions because mostly these kinds of transactions are conducted via malicious software that uses different credit cards in succession.
11. Ask for a Tracking Number and the Customer’s Signature.
A tracking number is required as proof that an order is delivered. Taking the customer’s signature after delivering the parcel will help you provide proof to your legitimate customer if any such instances of fraud happen.
In the End
Most e-commerce websites store personal data of their customers, like addresses and credit card details, to ease the buying process from their websites and the customers are not required to put their credentials every time they choose to purchase from you.
This means hiring the best eCommerce development company to maintain your website is a crucial step in the direction of safeguarding your website from any cyber-attack.
Credit card fraud is common but it can be avoided. Keeping your website maintained with added layers of security you can ensure that no such instances occur. All the above-mentioned tips are necessary to follow if you wish to safeguard the transactions happening through your website.
It’s always better to stay safe by regularly updating the latest versions of the software. These updates include security patches. Security patches are vital because they prevent any breach on your website.
