When most people think of payment fraud they think of the high-profile data breaches that occurred at big retail chains. If you’re a business, however, you’d do well to also take care with the interactions your company has with other businesses, because phishing attacks for B2B payments are on the rise. Phishing attacks from email and online services claimed 26 percent of phishing attacks last year, more even than those directed at financial institutions (21 percent).
Phishing, when someone sends out a ‘lure’ to get sensitive information is so effective because it relies on the weakest point in your organization’s defenses against fraud: people. There is no be-all-end-all solution for these types of attacks, because the nature of phishers is to continually stay on the forefront of attacks, and continually think up new tricks and new attacks. The best safeguard against phishing is to minimize the amount of human effort in your daily operations, and one great way of doing that is to get updated with new payment technology, such as the Poynt terminal, a point of sale device that opens business up to a variety of helpful integrations for all types of tasks, from inventory, to bookkeeping, to B2B payment sending.
If you’ve been constantly updating yourself and your business to the available technologies, it’s likely that you have an integrated payments solution for your business. The tendency toward integrating a wide range of tasks and functions that comprise your business daily operations makes sense, mainly because at the heart of your business is getting paid. It’s when you interact with your customer, it’s when you learn what inventory is leaving your store, and it’s when that money comes in, to be noted and entered into the books. Those who make solutions for integrated payment points of sale, such as the Poynt terminal, know this and have used the rich power of these platforms to create tools that make life easier for business owners.
One such area is in B2B payments. Invoices being sent over email (and snail mail) can open up the possibility for fraudsters and phishers to capitalize on an opportunity. Electronic payments can go further to ensure that phishing doesn’t interrupt your operations. That’s because things get automated and simplified on both ends of the payment, making it less likely that a phisher can find an opening.
In addition to the reduction in fraud, you and your business will be able to enjoy a number of other benefits, including:
Better payment processes can help. Whether with the Poynt terminal or any other integrated payment system, if you want to limit fraud and phishing, stay smart, and make sure your payments stay smart too.