As we approach the holiday season, it's important for large enterprise businesses to be aware of and prepared for the increased risk of gift card fraud. Gift cards have become a popular choice for consumers during this time, making them an attractive target for fraudsters. To safeguard your operations and protect your customers, consider implementing the following strategies depending on the specific area associated with your program:
Digital Sales and Redemptions:
- Upgrade Your Security Measures: Enhance your digital transaction security by implementing multi-layered solutions. Deploy measures such as web application firewalls, reCAPTCHA, velocity limits with alerting, and fraud event analytics tools. Additionally, consider upgrading to Fiserv's Gift Hosted Solutions or APIs, which offer risk mitigation for sales or velocity controls for balance inquiries.
- Safeguard Against Account Takeover Fraud (ATO): Cybercriminals can gain unauthorized access to customer accounts, compromising sensitive payment and gift card information. Minimize your exposure by implementing strict security measures. Utilize multi-factor authentication (MFA), validate and notify users of account changes through MFA, obfuscate payment details stored in applications, and review call center procedures to prevent social engineering attempts.
Physical Sales and Redemptions:
- Upgrade Card Security: Identify physical card control improvements by upgrading card packaging and consider storing cards in more secure locations. This might include upgraded visible card number and PIN covering, tamper evident packaging, and activation mechanisms. A Fiserv customer may take advantage of FraudWatch thresholds to detect potential card skimming events on inactive cards. Typically, inactive card activity should not occur more than one or two times.
- Create Awareness Around Behavior: Train employees to better identify tampered packaging and suspicious behavior. Additional controls and strategic placement to enable better monitoring should be considered for cards that could be activated for high values, likely cards over $200.
Business to Business Applications and Orders:
- Minimize Risk Exposure: Establish default order limits within Business to Business (B2B) portals to mitigate fraud risk until an applicant's payment history is confirmed. Consider establishing new partnerships with bank ACH payment requirements and create a baseline payment history for new applicants to build trust.
- Conduct Control Review Management: Review B2B applications for incomplete, unverified, or incorrect information. Validate the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) provided on the application.
- Trust but Verify: Always contact the applicant business’s phone number, not the number listed by the applicant on the application. This allows you to verify with the business and mitigates the risk of Business ID theft or compromised business emails. Learn more about business email scams.
By implementing these strategies, your enterprise can reduce the risk of gift card fraud during the holiday season. Protect your brand reputation, ensure a positive customer experience, and create trust and reliability with your business partners and consumers.
Remember, as a solutions provider, Fiserv is here to support you in securing your gift card programs. Together, let's make this holiday season a safe and joyful one for everyone.
For more detailed information about Fiserv fraud solutions, download:
Fraud and Risk B2B application review
Fraud and Risk Account Takeover
For additional information, email us at GiftSolutions@Fiserv.com.
