The business world is constantly in flux. As important as growth and longevity are to a business, protection from fraud is of singular importance. Developing powerful anti-fraud defences is tantamount to recording profits. Failure in securing client data or intellectual property or even in screening potential employees can have a negative effect on profits and reputation. Fraud has existed since money’s been in the world and seems to be limited only by the imaginations of the fraudsters. These days, with so much commerce happening online, people and businesses are subject to myriad types of cybercrime, in which vast amounts of information can be stolen, sometimes completely under the radar. However, there are means by which to ensure the safety of such vital, and personal, information. Here are five tips for protecting against business fraud.
1. Vet Your Employees
Charm and a good-looking C.V. can get an applicant past the interview process and into a job, but that doesn’t quite cover all of your bases, does it? Maybe a human relations liaison will ask if a candidate has ever committed fraud but not been caught or charged for it, but probably not. Nor would the candidate reply in the affirmative. Such is the inherent vulnerability of truth and honesty. Sadly, it cannot be relied upon. Instead, you can hire a respectable agency to run a background check. It is an important first step in communicating your business ethos. Scouring social media under the candidate’s name is also an effective measure for determining the kind of person you’re considering.
2. Ensure Client Privacy
When your clients log onto your system to conduct business, you need to be certain that it is actually them. Utilising means of identity verification Australia is crucial for such determinations. Adopt a methodology by which changes from the norm, on their end, are recognised. If, for example, a client is logging in on a different device than usually employed, create a stopping point for identity verification. This could be as simple as answering previously answered security questions or texting a code to a known cell phone number, which can then be entered as sufficient verification. A multi-authentication process doubles down on this methodology and further enhances both security for the client as well as the client’s perception of your security features.
3. Employ a Fraud Management System
There are many choices available for fraud management systems, but good ones have commonalities. It should be accessible to all necessary parties and depending on who is allowed to see what, different login options exist. Fraud is better dealt with by working as a team, and the help of business fraud solicitors. Systems can include tools that apply risk scores to users, whether employees or clients. Consider somebody trying multiple times, on different devices, to enter a login code. A competent system can flag this information and send the details back to the webmaster, ideally in real-time.
4. Train Yourself and Your Staff
Though it might not be on your mind all the time, you don’t ever want to be caught off guard in the wake of a security breach. Building training time to educate about the latest techniques by which fraud is attempted, and more importantly, foiled, is a good use of company time. Let these experiences have a communal feel in which people engage in discussions about their understanding of different tools available, including likes and dislikes. Listen to your staff when they discuss how fraud potentially affects their own niche in the business.
5. Screen Information Coming In
This is another way to ensure due diligence. By screening email addresses and mobile phone numbers, you can generate informative data on who is reaching out. By using this tool, you can verify who is utilising your business’s services, and how often, and you can even check to see if the email address has popped up in unsavoury places online, like the dark web.
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