Ways You Can Protect Your Online Store From Scams

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If you own an online store, you know just how dangerous it can be. There are countless attempts at fraud and people trying to scam your business. This is why having a secure website and maintaining your security is so important. Ecommerce businesses need to keep themselves protected from two sides.

They need to protect themselves from things like copycat sites and fraudulent chargebacks and they need to protect their customers from scams too. There is no one solution to protect your business from all threats. This is why it is so important to take the right precautions. Many businesses hire an IT managed services company to ensure that their business has the highest level of protection. If this is something you’d like to take care of yourself, we’ll take a look at what exactly an online scam can look like and how to keep your business safe.

What does an online scam look like?

The basis of an online scam is that someone tries to trick someone in order to steal their money online. Cybercriminals mainly use these scams to try to steal people’s identity or use it to steal people’s credit card information. There has been a significant rise in online scams since the beginning of the pandemic. This is because there was a major increase in online shopping. Not only did big corporations have to make the switch to online, but almost all small businesses also had to as well.

Why is it important to avoid online scams?

Online business owners collect the personal information of their customers. Based on the website this can include passwords, credit card information and other personal information, which is why they are targeted by cyber criminals. It is important to prevent attacks that can damage your business because it can cause a significant loss in revenue and completely damage your business. Some of the risks of fraud can include, a damaged reputation, product loss and a loss of revenue due to chargeback fees.

The most common online scams to look out for:

Phishing

We’ve all heard about phishing attacks and they are one of the oldest forms of online scams. These are generally done via email. These are emails that seem authentic but the only thing they do is try to steal your information. There are always new phishing scams since they seem to be ever-evolving.

It is important to keep an eye out for emails or texts that are asking for your personal information. These emails generally contain a link which, once you link on it, gives the cybercriminals a way in to get your personal information. To prevent your business from being at risk for these attacks, you should install software that scans your emails for potential risks and never clicks on unknown links. If you are unsure of how to install the correct software, you can hire IT support to help set it up exactly as your business needs it.

Chargeback fraud

Chargebacks have the most devastating effect on small businesses. Unfortunately, these are very common issues. Scammers will buy a large, expensive order from your business. Once the order ships, the scammer will cancel the payment.

They’ll then get the order and they’ll get their money back. Another method scammers use is to say that they did not receive their order so try a duplicate of their order for free. Unfortunately, businesses tend to be on the losing side here. Unless there is a way to prove the fraud 100%, the scammer generally wins.

Here are a few tips to avoid these scams:

Never share your sensitive information

Make sure that you never share any important information via email. Emails are so easy for cybercriminals to retrieve sensitive information because emails are not encrypted. If a hacker gets into an email in your network, every other inbox in that network is at risk. Make sure you secure your emails with firewalls and email scanners to prevent this from happening.

Stay up to date with scams and fraud attempts

The best way to prevent being scammed is to know what to look out for. There are many IT support companies that hold seminars on how to spot scams and fraud attempts.

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