Avoid Jack Fraud This Winter: Shop Securely Online

Online shopping is great for many reasons; you can find stuff online that “brick-and-mortar” stores don’t offer, often times you can order something and personalize it to make gifts more special, and you can do it all from the convenience of your own home in your pajamas!

I know that a lot of people don’t like shopping online because they feel it is not secure. The truth is that there are a lot of fraudulent websites out there, online hackers, identity thieves, unsecure check-out pages, etc. However, there are also a lot of ways to make sure that when you are online, you are secure.

During the winter season, I do as much of my shopping as I can at home and online. When I shop online, I don’t have to go anywhere to pick up my items and I don’t have to deal with crazy angry parents looking for the last “Tickle Me Elmo” on the shelves. I also love online shopping because I know the tricks ofkeeping my personal and financial information secure while shopping online.

In this article, I will be sharing with you my online shopping secrets, to help you stay secure while online.

1.      Protect your computer. It always drives me crazy when I hear about people complaining about online fraud and then you come to find out that their own computer is not PCI Compliant or secure. That is just asking for Identity Theft! If you are like me, then much of your life is conducted on your computer. This is why I ensure that my own computer is secure.

2.      Visit Wisely. The first rule to online shopping is: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Before I purchase something online, if it is from a site I am not familiar with I do three things to verify it.

a.    First, Check to see if it has a security seal or trust logo posted on their website. If you don’t see a security seal displayed from a trust online verification company like Trust Guard, it is probably not a secure site.

b.    Next, Check the contacts. I always make sure that the business’ address and phone number match up. If I can’t find the info on Google, I don’t trust it. If I can find it on Google, then I verify it even more and call the number to get more information. If a website does not have a mailing address, phone number, and email address, then it is not a company I want to do business with.

c.    Third, In the URL Bar at the top of your page, check to see if a little secure lock pulls up when you are checking out. If this does not happen, then the check out page is not secure. The lock is the sign that the company has a current SSL certificate.

It is not hard to be secure online. Keep these tips in mind as you avoid the Jack Fraud this winter and shop securely online.

Top Five PCI Compliance Firms for Credit Card Processors

Being PCI Compliant is more than just completing the required self-assessment-questionnaire. It improves the safety of your business, and the security of the information you process for your valued customers. Finding the best compliance company, will help protect you from fraud and could potentially save you thousands of dollars against hackers and others trying to steal identities. 

If you are a business owner looking for the best company to start your PCI Compliance, then check out these Top 5 PCI Compliance Firms supported by National Credit Card Processing Companies:

·         First Data

·         iPayment

·         PowerPay

·         Elavon

·         NPC Retriever

These Top 5 PCI Compliant Companies are the most well-known PCI Compliance consultants that the payment processing industry has to offer. These findings were uncovered through professional surveying, research and risk evaluation. In order to have the honor of being published on the National Credit Card Processing Top 5 Compliant company list, they were required to excel in the following categories:

·         Price

·         Customer satisfaction

·         Coverage protection

·         Risk conversion

·         Fraud control settings

·         Security scan authenticity

·         Personal guarantor

Research also shows that when online consumers see that businesses display third party trust seals, they are more apt to make the buying decision because they can see that the company has gone through the rigorous process of becoming PCI Compliant.

How to Know If You Can Trust an eCommerce Website

Doing business online is convenient in today’s quick-paced, advancing world. However, purchasing things online can also be sketchy, if you can’t trust the website. This is why it is important to know how to trust a website. 
 

The main thing to look for is a secure trust seal. Besides having an SSL certificate, most secure websites will display a third-party security seal on their main page to show consumers that their information is kept private and secure.

So, what is a Trust Seal? A trust seal is an image or logo that online business owners can obtain for their website from trusted third-party verification companies like Trust Guard.

This trust seal is not easy for business owners to acquire. In order to have a trust seal displayed on your website, businesses must go through a series of privacy, business identity and website and server security vulnerability tests to see if they are processing credit cards safely. They must be PCI Compliant to obtain one of these trust seals.

Being PCI Compliant means that you comply with all of the security standards of the Payment Card Industry. In order for a business to be compliant they are also required to take a self-assessment questionnaire. This verifies that they are running credit card transactions securely. This SAQ goes through a detailed set of questions that must be answered correctly in order for the business owner to be approved as a PCI Compliant company.

Also, to obtain a secure trust seal, the website and server have to go through a security scan. This security scan goes through the business owner’s website and internet to check for viruses and ensure that everything is protected. This decreases the chances of allowing hackers to access and infiltrate the site.

When purchasing a product online, it is important that consumers know whether or not they are visiting a website that can be trusted. The best way for consumers to know if they can trust a website for online purchases is to see if the site has a security seal boldly displayed on it.

                                             

                                             

How Trust Seals Increase Your Business

 

As you know, much of what we do today we do online. Businesses now have Facebook pages that customers can “like” and be made aware of promotions and new products through status updates. Companies also “Tweet” on Twitter stating things like: “ClearanceSale/Hot NewItems/50%Off.” This is how many businesses today choose to market their brands.

Because of this, nearly all businesses have a website, whether or not they actually sell products online. To start, they purchase a URL and domain name and find some company to host it. Then they find a design company and create a beautiful, functional, easy-to-navigate website which, by itself immediately increases their chance for success.

By creating a business website, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc., businesses are able to let people all over the world know about whom they are, what they sell, and why we should buy their products. Having an online presence has proven to increase customer bases by providing a free report or digital product simply by asking for a person’s email address to access the free gift.. This is one way that today’s business world continues to evolve.

Multiple surveys and case studies have shown that the #1 way to entice online consumers into purchasing products is to have a secure website. Having a secure websiteis more than just having an SSL certificate. It also means daily vulnerability scanning which checks for loop-holes hackers could use to gain access to the website.

These scans should be accompanied by a trust seal which demonstrates to individuals visiting the website that the site is clean and free of security vulnerabilities. The trust seal shows a consumer that you are compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and that you care about the safety and security of the shopper’s personal information and any private data they might need to enter.

A recent Trust Seal survey showed that for businesses that displayed a security-related trust seal on their website garnered the following results during the first full month of visibly demonstrating their concern for safety:

1.     At least a 7.5% Increase in conversion rate,

2.     An average increase of 4.0% in average order size, and

3.     A Minimum of 11.9% increase in net revenue.

And because most trustworthy trust verification seals offer a substantial guarantee – including Doubling Your Money Back, there really is no risk on the part of the business owner to display the security seal and scan the site against vulnerabilities – especially when you consider that being PCI compliant is no longer mandatory.