ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The coronavirus pandemic has placed a new premium on safety, which has led to a rapid embrace of new ways to pay. But just how safe are these newer digital methods? Mobile fraud has increased 48% year over year.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the transition of many merchants to rolling out mobile apps,” said Danny Omiliak, senior consultant at W. Capra, during this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “Combating Digital Fraud.” “Fraudsters are now flocking to these new mobile applications, which means retailers should put in place fraud controls,” Omiliak said.
“One of the biggest things that I’ve learned from the pandemic… is the need to have the right blocking and tackling and risk mitigation in place to protect your business, but also protect your users,” said Casey Zenner, director of enterprise sales for Kount, on the podcast. “The beauty of this digital transformation is it allows these businesses to also better track and better market to their customer base, which I think is so key.”
To protect their brand, retailers need to have safeguards in place around mobile and contactless payments. “Trust technology, and make sure you have a great team to evaluate data and trends,” Zenner recommended.
Omiliak highlighted the need for retailers to ensure customer information is correct, like verifying names, phone numbers and email addresses when signing up for the app. “Fraudsters put in fake emails, fake phone numbers, and you need to be able to catch them,” he said. “Is your device looking to see if it’s a computer versus a human? All of that technology exists.”
The bottom line is that retailers need to “trust data, trust your partners,” Zenner said. “Leverage the data that your partners can provide and make sure that you have the right deployment model in each area to help mitigate risk and protect your customers.”
“And if you’re ever rolling out a new technology, a new platform or a new way to pay, … you have to consider what potential fraud gaps exist before you deploy it and not after—otherwise you’ll pay the price,” Omiliak concluded.
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Each week a new Convenience Matters episode is released. With more than 250 episodes to choose from, the podcast can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and other podcast apps and YouTube and at www.conveniencematters.com. Episodes have been downloaded more than 200,000 times by listeners around the world.