01/17/2024: Protect Your Business from Online Payment Fraud
A friendly reminder…FRAUD IS ON THE RISE. As we have discussions with business clients, we are reminding them to be aware of check fraud, ACH Fraud and business email compromise. What we’re seeing…
- Checks stolen from mailboxes, payee names washed and cashed.
- Account information compromised causing counterfeit checks.
- Compromised checks turn in to ACH fraud.
Tips, Tricks and Helpful Bits…
- First line of defense for all businesses is ONLINE BANKING and frequent monitoring of your account activity.
- Build it into your daily routine to review account activity every morning and report unauthorized activity immediately.
- Use a PO Box and STOP Saturday mail deliveries or deliveries where no one is in the office to retrieve from a mailbox.
- DO NOT send payment requests from an email or nonverbal request without picking up the phone and verifying with a trusted source.
- Do not call the phone number listed in the signature of the email.
- Look for red flags – grammar, sense of urgency, email address similar but not exact, etc.
- Don’t click links without verifying. Links are the fraudsters’ way to gain access into your system. From there, they can monitor typical activity for days, months and even years. These online thieves are getting smarter and more patient than ever before.
- Use Positive Pay to help with the daily reconciliation of checks and ACH debits clearing all accounts.
- Positive pay is a fraud detection tool that can help protect your business from unauthorized checks and ACH debit activity. This automated system will compare and verify only authorized checks and ACH debits against your account therefore allowing you to be notified of all other unauthorized discrepancies.
- Have additional conversations with your insurance agent to ensure appropriate policy coverages.
Let’s have a conversation about the tools State Bank offers and how they will assist you in fighting fraud. It’s not a matter of IF fraud happens, it’s WHEN! Visit our website or call 317-858-6158 to learn more!
