Fraud is a common problem for many businesses. Fraud can steal your products or your profits. Fraud issues can damage customers’ trust in your brand.
The good news is that using a people search engine can help protect your business from fraud by vetting your employees or clients and using data analytics to spot, track, and stop suspicious behavior online.
Check out these 5 ways that people search engines can help protect your business from fraud.
1. Know Who You’re Doing Business With
Maybe you have an e-commerce platform or source products or services from another company. Before you do agree to work with another company, it’s best to do a little detective work. A people search engine can do this for you in just a few minutes.
It’s a good idea to search for the company’s name in connection with keywords such as “scam,” “fraud,” or “customer complaint”. This will help you find out the business’s reputation and what customers have reported about the company.
Be wary of people who contact you about services or products for your business. You can ask trusted local business owners to give positive recommendations for the resources or services that you need. This is generally a more reliable way to secure the right kind of business and avoid fraudulent companies.
2. Create Limits on Product Volume
If your company sells a product or a service, it may not make sense to prevent customers from making a lot of transactions. But it’s a good idea to consider limiting the number of transactions that a customer can make in a day.
You can check customer data reports from people search engines to discover fraudsters who try to spend as much money or make multiple purchases in a row. This is an indication that you are likely dealing with a fraudster who is trying to exploit your company.
3. Utilize Data Analytics to Track Fraudulent Activities
People search engine technologies can use adaptive behavioral analytics that can help you recognize individuals who are probably going to engage in fraudulent behavior. Data analytics can track people’s spending patterns, how quickly they spend money when on a given site, how fast they click through purchases, and whether they hit a phone screen hard during a purchase which can indicate emotion and speed.
People search sites can gather information on potential customers’ behavior that can help you spot and take appropriate steps when you can tell that something is off.
Ensure that your staff has fraud prevention training and that your IT team has what it needs to take the steps to block fraudulent activity on your website.
4. Search Engines Can Reveal a Fraudster
You can count on people’s search engines as a reliable way to identify fraud directed at your website or company. Since people’s search engines collect a wide variety of data pulled from purchase history, website visits, or interactions with social media ads, it can give you a good idea about the people who visit your site.
Watch for common fraud issues such as people who place huge orders, high amounts of services or products, strange use of addresses listed overseas, or delivery addresses that don’t match with purchase information.
If you’re in doubt, it’s always best to use a people search engine to check a customer’s name against their email address, telephone number, or shipping address. Use a reverse lookup app like Number Tracker to find the details of the unknown caller. This can help prevent identity theft, fraudulent use of credit cards, or site compromise that can allow a fraudster to change the shipping address after payment is made.
A people search engine can help identify the customer in question and verify their identity. For example, you can check social media accounts or public records.
In the best case, you will be able to confirm that your customer is who they say they are and you can feel safe to ship the order. In the worst case, you’ve uncovered a fraudster, but you can save your company a lot of money and headache in the long run.
5. Hire the Right People
While you always want to check the people with whom you do business, whether it’s customers or other companies, it’s important that you hire reliable people who aren’t going to commit fraud within your company.
Before you hire any new employees, consider using a people search engine as a preliminary background check. All you need to do is type the potential hire’s name into a people search engine bar and pull up details about the person’s identity, career, or social media accounts.
Doing this can help you flag any issues off the bat or give you the go-ahead to hire the right person for your company.
FAQ
Q: How can businesses identify phishing emails or fraudulent messages?
A: Businesses can look for suspicious email addresses or domain names, check for grammatical errors or unusual language, verify email requests for sensitive information through other channels, and avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown sources.
Q: What should businesses do if they suspect a fraudulent transaction?
A: If a fraudulent transaction is suspected, businesses should immediately contact their financial institution or a payment processor, gather all relevant information and document the suspicious activity, report the incident to local law enforcement or cybercrime units, and notify any affected parties, such as customers or employees.
Q: How can businesses protect customer payment information during online transactions?
A: To protect customer payment information, businesses should use secure payment gateways that encrypt customer data, implement SSL certificates on the website to ensure secure connections, comply with industry standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and regularly update and patch e-commerce platforms to address vulnerabilities.
Q: What steps can businesses take to prevent internal fraud?
A: Businesses can take several steps to prevent internal fraud, such as implementing segregation of duties to ensure checks and balances, conducting thorough background checks before hiring employees, implementing strong internal controls and approval processes for financial transactions, and regularly monitoring and reviewing financial records for inconsistencies.
Q: How can businesses protect themselves from social engineering attacks?
A: To protect against social engineering attacks, businesses should educate employees about social engineering tactics and red flags, train them to be cautious with sharing sensitive information or credentials, implement strict verification processes for sensitive requests, and encourage a culture of skepticism and reporting suspicious activities within the organization.
Final Thoughts
A people search engine is a valuable tool for spotting, tracking, and stopping fraud that can hurt your business. This tool can help you gather vital data on your customers, new hires, and other clients or resources.
This method is also a good way to trace how people spend money, order volumes, and other important statistics that can help you target and stop fraud in its tracks before it compromises your company.
