The holiday season delivers increased traffic and higher sales, but it also attracts a rise in fraudulent activity. Protecting your business requires preparation across staff training, payment security, and technology.
A proactive approach helps shield your operations while maintaining a safe, seamless experience for customers.
Education and training
Your employees play a central role in effective fraud prevention. Equip them with the knowledge they need to recognize and respond to suspicious activity.
Start by educating staff about social engineering attacks. Fraudsters often use emails, texts, or calls to request sensitive information or push employees to approve unauthorized payments. Training should focus on how to verify sender identities and how to respond safely when something feels off.
Vendor invoice scams are another common tactic. Establish a clear process for approving payment changes, especially when bank account details are involved. Always confirm updates through a trusted contact method rather than relying on the information provided in a single message.
In-store teams also need to recognize point-of-sale risks. Teach employees how to spot skimming devices and provide guidance on identifying patterns associated with gift card schemes.
For businesses that accept digital ordering, ensure staff are familiar with red flags such as unusually large orders, mismatched billing information, shipments to P.O. boxes, or international destinations inconsistent with a customer’s location.
Strengthen payment security
Secure payments form the backbone of safe holiday operations. Begin by implementing multi-factor authentication for all employees who access sensitive systems. Even if a password is compromised, additional verification helps protect your accounts.
Keep your POS hardware, ecommerce platform, and software updated with the latest versions and security patches. If you rely on credit card processing for hard to place retailers, verify that your provider maintains strong PCI-compliant protections and modern fraud safeguards suitable for higher-risk environments.
Enforce a strict password policy that requires strong, unique credentials across business accounts. Have employees update their passwords regularly to reduce exposure.
Put technology to work
Automated fraud detection tools expand your protection by monitoring transactions in real time. These systems can alert you to unusual activity such as multiple small purchases in quick succession, repeated orders sent to the same address using different cards, or several transactions from a single IP address.
Advanced verification methods can also analyze billing addresses, compare CVV codes, and confirm cardholder details. When information fails to align, the system flags the transaction so you can review it manually.
This layered approach reduces your exposure without slowing down legitimate orders.
Holiday demand can create distractions that make fraud harder to spot. By combining employee awareness, strong payment security practices, and intelligent technology, you can significantly reduce risk and create a safe environment for both your customers and your business.
