Prevent Fraud During the Holidays

Fraudsters won’t be nice during the holidays. Neither should you. These tips will help shield your business from cybercrime and theft.

1. Immediately report suspicious activity.
   If you experience application pop-ups, error messages, unfamiliar login screens, suspicious emails, or other unusual activity, report them to your security team right away. Do not click on suspicious links. The FBI hosts a comprehensive cybercrime site, where you’ll find tips to protect your business, news, and instructions for reporting a claim if you believe you’ve been a victim.


2. Audit fraud prevention practices.
   Conduct an assessment to ensure that your fraud prevention tools are working and to identify any gaps. For example, your business may be susceptible to package rerouting or account takeover based on outdated customer service or ordering protocols.


3. Know your benchmarks.
   Analyze your historical holiday transaction data so that you are aware of your “normal” holiday numbers for chargebacks and decline rates. Also assess both fraud that was prevented and successful by channel, product, payment, and transaction type.


4. Develop a fraud prevention plan.
   Create and implement a documented fraud prevention plan with procedures, roles, and responsibilities. The plan should cover the system, network, application, and transaction levels. It should include both tactics to mitigate fraud, as well as steps to take if fraud occurs. Revisit this plan frequently and look for improvements to strengthen fraud prevention measures.


5. Maintain tight internal controls.
   The holidays are no time to lighten up on internal accounting controls such as segregation of duties, audits and management review of expenses, bank statements and collections. While most employees are honest, some are not — and holiday financial pressures may tempt unethical employees. Set thresholds and limits for customer and employee purchases, with oversight for above-limit purchase and too-frequent return attempts. Examine commission policies to ensure that employees are not rewarded for selling to friends, family or fraudsters who will return merchandise in the post-holiday period.


6. Be consistent.
   Consistency reveals anomalies and weaknesses. Good training drives home standardized practices, despite holiday chaos. If your team follows the same processes with every transaction, then unexpected, non-standard actions stand out.


7. Use multiple layers of fraud prevention tools.
   Because there are so many diverse channels and criminal tactics, businesses should adopt a layered approach to fraud prevention. IBM recommends a comprehensive digital security plan that addresses the system, network, application, and transmission levels individually. Then document how the levels will integrate with each other.1 Use the latest technologies, including machine learning to recognize data associated with fraud patterns, to keep fraudsters away.


8. Staff up store locations, call centers and IT.
   Increase staffing with properly trained employees who can identify, escalate, and prevent fraud. Make sure your team is rested so they are ready to catch fraudsters in your store, online, on the phone or any channel you use.


9. Purchase business crime insurance.
   Fraudsters are innovative. Insurance companies are responding with a range of products to protect not only your physical assets and inventory from theft, but they can also safeguard your business from cyberattacks.

Interested in learning how to defend your business against seasonal fraud? Contact Synovus Treasury & Payment Solutions or your Treasury Consultant. You can also stop by one of our local branches.