All of the shopping, bargain hunting, and charitable giving of the holiday season makes it a prime time for scammers to attempt to steal your cardholders’ personal information or money.
It’s important for your cardholders to be able to protect themselves from scams during the holiday season — and all year round — and there a few things you can do as their financial institution to help keep them safe from fraud:
Inform cardholders of alert options
Transaction alerts provide a fast and easy way for cardholders to keep an eye on the money coming in and out of their accounts, increasing the chances that they spot fraud as soon as it happens.
It’s important that your cardholders understand the benefits of setting up account alerts and what to do when they notice something is wrong: to call their bank right away and discuss their options.
Make your cardholders aware of fraud notifications
There are all kinds of scams out there, but if cardholders know which text messages, alerts, and phone calls trying to confirm suspicious transactions are legit, then they can keep themselves safe and will be that much quicker at reporting potential fraud on the front end.
Simply communicate with your cardholders about the fraud notices they may receive from their processor.
Keep cardholder contact information up to date on your processor systems
If a fraud team attempts to reach out to a cardholder to confirm a suspicious transaction but the phone number or email address on file is outdated, this will prevent your fraud monitoring processes from running as efficiently as possible.
Additionally, it could waste valuable time in which more fraudulent transactions might be initiated.
Scammers work fast, so fraud teams need to work faster; that’s why you should make it a point to continually gather up-to-date contact information for your cardholders.
Review your bank’s fraud rules
After a year, a fraud rule may no longer be valid and can be removed from your database. So, it’s important to review your fraud monitoring rules every year
While you may want to keep some rules permanently, it’s still a good idea to refresh your memory of what rules are in place.
Educate your cardholders on ways they can protect themselves
Much of fraud prevention still falls in the hands of your cardholders, but you can help them out by providing plenty of education on ways to protect themselves.
Explain to your cardholders the importance of reviewing monthly statements to ensure that all transactions are really theirs — and let them know what to do if they find something amiss on their statement.
Also, inform your cardholders of next steps in the event that their card is lost or stolen. Make sure they known to call their bank right away and have their card turned off to prevent unauthorized transactions.
To learn more about protecting your cardholders from fraud this holiday season, reach out to The Advantage Network Manager Teresa Thill at (605) 335-5112!