Fraudulent credit card transactions can create financial liability and tarnish the reputation of a business. With merchant services fraud prevention strategies in place, you can increase the security of point of sales devices and reduce the risk of credits being submitted that do not reflect bona fide returns or reimbursements of earlier transactions.
How to protect your business
- Assign a unique ID to each person with access to point of sale equipment and systems.
- Maintain a policy that addresses information security for employees and contractors.
- Protect stored and sent data across networks using methods indicated in the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards.
- Only use services and merchant equipment that have been certified as PCI Data Security Standards compliant by the credit card organizations.
- Maintain PCI compliance and complete annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire.
- Keep all systems and media containing card account, cardholder, or transaction information (whether physical or electronic) in a secure manner to prevent access by or disclosure to any unauthorized party.
- Restrict physical access to cardholder information.
- Install and maintain a secure network firewall to protect data across public networks.
- Regularly test security systems and processes.
- Destroy or purge all media containing obsolete transaction data with cardholder information.
What to do if you suspect fraud
If your business experiences merchant services fraud, immediately contact First Data Merchant Services[cite::270::cite] (877) 273-8191.