4 Fraud prevention tips that you must follow this Holiday Season

The holiday season is around the corner and it is the time of the year when online shopping and more specifically Christmas online shopping is at its peak. Christmas celebration coincides with millions of people using the occasion to make purchases from stores that have designed special sales and product lines for Xmas festival. But despite being a joyous occasion, the holiday season that ranges between Thanksgiving and Christmas is plagued by frequent identity frauds to perform online shopping. These identity frauds are performed by a number of means that can be in the form of account takeover and even by the use of fake identity credentials. Fraud prevention is an important responsibility not only on part of the individual shopper but on the part of businesses as well.

Why Fraud Prevention is Important?

Every year, online shopping spree attracts a large number of scammers and fraudsters that want to earn a quick buck from the frenzy surrounding the Christmas shopping. But interestingly, the increase in fraud attempts is far higher than the increase in transactions performed during Xmas festival.

Christmas online shopping sees people performing 19% more online transactions than yearly average but online frauds rise 22% higher than usual attempts of performing an online fraud during the same period.

Fraud Prevention Tips

Businesses as well as individual shoppers that want to benefit from the amazing deals of Christmas online shopping, fraud prevention tips can be really beneficial.

1. Avoid Using Public Wi-Fi

There is no easier method than stealing important identity information from devices connected to Public Wi-Fi. So no matter, how tempted you feel to connect to the Wi-Fi of  the shopping mall you are visiting or any other publically available Wi-Fi, never connect your digital devices (either smartphone or tablet) with these virtual connectivity hubs, especially in these festive days when an average crook is more interested in your personal information than your wallet.

2. Safer Internet Browsing

You might not be too excited about online shopping discounts offered during the holiday season but that does not mean that you are fully safe from scammers and digital identity thieves. So you need to be extra careful in your internet browsing practices. Do not open an email from an address that you do not recognize and even if you find nothing alarming about the email address, refrain from unwantedly clicking on any link in that email, no matter how tempting it feels like.

Same goes for online websites. Never enter any of your personal information on a website that might belong to a genuine business or outlet but lacks necessary security layer. The easiest way to check for that is by looking at the Url of the page. If it starts with https:// then you are safe, otherwise run away.

3. Secure Your Payments & Plastic Cards

Credit card skimming and ATM hijacking are the oldest tricks for stealing financial information of users. It is important that for an airtight fraud prevention, you remain cautious about using payment gateways. It will be easier to monitor your transaction records if you opt for real-time sign-up alerts and mobile SMS for everytime you perform a purchase using your credit card. Account takeover is surpassing conventional forms of identity theft and best identity theft protection can be availed by doing the simple things right.

4. Powerful Anti-Fraud Solution

Businesses that are looking to avoid a substantial loss of revenue despite a successful holiday season, should get in touch with fraud protection services. There are many identity verification solutions that can come handy not only for Christmas online shopping but for walk-in customers at multiple retail outlets. Mind you that online ID verification and best identity theft protection is not just needed by businesses offering retail items for sale during the holiday season. As described in the above infographic, industries as diverse as cryptocurrency and financial services experience a larger number of identity theft attempts during the holiday season.

Shufti is a reliable option for businesses that want the support of a reliable fraud protection service, this holiday season. As a universally accessible anti-fraud solution, Shufti can perform fraud detection with the help of its various online identity verification services such as ID verification, Face verification, Address Verification, and even credit card verification.

Online ID verification from Shufti not only supports official ID cards but can also verify a person’s identity with the help of driving licenses as well as passports. Shufti is available in 225+ countries and supports 150+ languages, making it the most appropriate fraud fighter for businesses around the globe. Real-Time verification results are forwarded to end-users as well as Shufti customers to create a relationship of trust between businesses and consumers.

Recommended For You:

• 8 Fraud Prevention Tips for a smooth business uptake in 2018

• Fraud Prevention through Secure Payment Processes

• Fraud Prevention in Fintech Industry