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Some of the busiest (and dirtiest) electronics in our lives are point of sale terminals, cash registers, touchscreen displays, keyboards, keypads, credit/debit cards and the like. These days when you’re in a store – as a merchant or customer – you’re preoccupied with getting through your experience and going home. It’s essential that the point of sale devices we all touch are as germ-free as possible. Here’s how:

Step-by-Step Cleaning

So how should you disinfect a card terminal? Or did you realize that credit cards themselves are full of germs? During this crisis, it’s imperative that we minimize transmission of germs. To reduce the possibility of spreading bacteria, disinfecting the surfaces of point of sale machines and the cards themselves is more necessary than ever.

First: If possible, unplug the device to protect yourself and the equipment. If it cannot be disconnected (such as a swipe terminal mounted on a stand), exercise great caution.

Here’s how:

Wear: disposable or reusable nitrile, rubber or latex gloves

Disinfecting: Use single-use disinfectant wipes made for electronic devices, or spray a soft cloth with a disinfectant cleaning spray that’s safe for electronics. Cleaning a push-button terminal may require different wipes or spray cleaner than you would use on a touchscreen smart terminal. Touchscreens have a protective coating on the display that could be affected by alcohol-based solutions. Get into small spaces with Q-tips dipped in the disinfectant.

Cleaning the card slot: Order and use a cleaning card made specifically for card readers. Staples and other office supply stores carry them inexpensive ones.

Beware: Only use an alcohol or other solvent-based solution if you know your terminal model can take it as some manufacturers clearly state not to use strong solvents or alcohol products.

Do NOT:

Do not spray any liquid directly on the device. Spray on a soft cloth, then wipe the machine with the cloth.

Whether it’s a throwaway wipe or reusable soft cloth, don’t get it so wet that it leaves liquid droplets on the machine’s surface. The cloth should be moist, but wring it out first if it is dripping.

Protect openings, such as the card slot or gaps around buttons, so moisture doesn’t seep into the internal machinery and damage it.

What to do:

Before you start, check the manufacturer’s instructions and recommendations for types of cleaning products. Using the wrong cleaning products or procedure could void the device warranty.

Carefully rub the exterior of the device with the wipe or cloth. Concentrate on areas around the buttons, slot and sides where people touch the terminal. If an area gets too wet, immediately wipe it with a dry cloth or paper towel.

Use the cleaning card (for chip and swipe slots) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Dispose of single-use gloves and wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.

Plug the device back in and turn it on if you were able to switch it off before cleaning it.

Clean your card machine and all POS equipment as often as possible; ideally after each customer transaction if possible

 

Germy credit cards need cleaning too!

You are probably not surprised to learn that credit/debit cards are every bit as dirty as the bills and coins in your pocket or wallet. And they spread bacteria too. Clean your cards regularly and for goodness sake, never put them in your mouth or allow your children to teethe on them either!

Wipe both sides of the card with a disinfectant wipe, then let it dry.

Use an eraser to remove grime build-up especially on the magnetic stripe, though this probably will not remove all bacteria.

Expose the cards to a UV light sanitizer. These are a bit pricey but kill 99.9% of all bacteria and can be used for all your devices.

All any of us can do at this point is to follow the “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” motto and do what we can to keep ourselves and our customers healthy and safe. We will continue to need to be merchants as well as customers. Practicing safe habits will protect us all.

If you have other suggestions or questions, please reach out and let us know! 

Be safe and stay healthy!

Mike Krause

Sales Sense Payments

www.SalesSensePayments.com

585-704-6453

 

mike@salessensepayments.com

 

 

So how are you doing with New Year’s resolutions for your business? Even if your personal resolutions are already by the wayside, you should develop and stick with a few simple organization tips for your business. Resolutions build clear, measurable objectives and goals into your business plan for 2020 and help you get on – and stay on – track – this year. When you make resolutions a part of your business operations and work on them with your staff, you’re much more likely to attain them. Even one person shops should write down (not typing into a computer, mind you) their goals and tell your partner, your parakeet or the office kitty cat. As you might expect, most work-related resolutions focus on getting better organized – a sore point for businesses of any size. Remember that time you had to find that hard copy of that letter or your meeting notes? It happens to me more frequently than I care to admit: the receipt for the one item that cannot be returned without it, disappears forever. And I swear I just had it in my wallet. If you can set up a simple asset tracking and management system, and stick to it, you will save yourself huge headaches this year and every year. So where do you start to write up a couple New Year’s resolutions for your business before? Here are a few suggestions. Start with a couple and get started with those. Let them jumpstart your year, give you a sense of direction and accomplishment. You can always add additional points each quarter. Declutter Your Desk A messy desk is the sign of an active mind, right? Sorry but no. Getting and keeping your desk organized saves you a significant chunk of time in hunting through documents, sticky notes, phone messages and pens that don’t write any more. Set up a system where every item has a place, including labels, folders, bins and trays. Adopt a “touch it once” discipline and become the role model. Pick up a document or project, act on it (delegate if appropriate), and then move on. Same with emails and appointments. Act on something immediately and then it’s off your desk and back into the process flow. It also takes a huge burden off your shoulders. Check Your Assets If you haven’t done an inventory of what you own and where those items are located in the last year, now is a great time to do that as well. Split the task among staff members, if possible, so the whole thing is not one person’s responsibility. Maybe knock off early one afternoon, order pizza and beverages, turn up the music and get everyone working on it together. You also need to know the condition of what you own and what you lease or rent. Look online for easy asset management and inventory worksheets to get you started. Knowing what you have (and what might need to be replaced or upgraded) gives you a feeling of control over your business. There are also a number of maintenance tracking software packages available that can help you track maintenance schedules, plan for equipment failures or obsolescence and keep your technology up to date so your business runs efficiently. Plan Now for Year End Setting these controls up now helps you when next December rolls around and you want to look back at the year. Work with your accounting person, CPA or department head to review your budget frequently and update staff on decisions and process changes. What got you here won’t keep you here, so you must keep your eye out for changes in the business environment, customer industries and your industry. Your business is only as adaptable as your ability to sense change and flex as necessary. Also encourage your staff to alert you to changes in the business as they experience them.  Walk Away Make a list of what didn’t work for you and your company last year and give those up as soon as possible. What projects or distractions kept you and your staff from accomplishing greater things last year? Not everything you or they try is a home run. Do a quick inventory and as objectively as possible, check to see if you are delegating enough? Are you empowering your employees or are they feeling micromanaged? Just as in prior years, not everything will be a wild success. Keep notes, keep your cool and give yourself and your company points for trying. The main thing is to keep trying and figuring out what works and takes your business to the next level.  While reflecting on your business should happen more than once a year, it is especially important now as we all take a collective breath and tackle a new year and a new decade. Make the coming year the very best it can be for your business! Build Momentum Start with the easiest things and tasks to organize and allow yourself to feel the personal satisfaction that brings. On your To Do list, include something each week that moves your organization just one more small step forward. With those small efforts, you’ll find more efficiency and productivity for yourself and your team. Give it a try this year and see how much easier your personal and professional operations move forward.

While we as a nation are making strides in preventing credit card fraud, it still happens. You can take steps to identify and prevent bad transactions by arming yourself with more knowledge and staying alert during every transaction.

Virtually every business must accept credit cards to attract and keep customers but accepting credit cards makes your business vulnerable to the scourge of credit card fraud. Even with the introduction of more secure chipped cards, credit card fraud continues to rise – estimated at a worldwide loss of $24.26 billion in 2018. That’s an increase of about 19% in 2018 and unfortunately, it is still climbing.

So what can you do to detect and prevent your business from accepting fraudulent payments? As expected, chipped credit cards have reduced point-of-sale (POS) fraud since their introduction, shifting the majority of bad transactions to card-not-present transactions such as online and telephone purchases – more than 80% more likely than POS problems.

Who Pays for Credit Card Fraud?

Not surprisingly, credit card fraud – really a form of identity theft – harms businesses and consumers alike. Identity theft is the third largest kind of fraud across the country, closely following phone scams and debt collection swindles.

The card issuers and the originating merchants assume responsibility for the money stolen with fraudulent transactions. Counterfeit cards in POS transactions account for most card issuer losses while merchants are more affected by card-not-present transactions.

Thanks to federal laws and financial institution policies, consumers are protected from liability when illegal purchases are made with their stolen/compromised credit cards. No business is immune to credit card fraud but there are ways to detect fraud and protect your business

Here are some easy ways to build a protective shield around your business against credit card fraud.

Switch to Chipped

Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) is the worldwide standard for processing credit and debit transactions with improved real-time security in POS situations. Accepting chipped cards is a major way to bullet proof your POS transactions.

It is widely accepted that the United States has more POS fraud than elsewhere because the US was the last major country to adopt EMV. While other first world nations had chipped cards a decade before the US, the Fraud Liability Shift wasn’t in force here until October 2015. Countries adopting EMV earlier had a dramatic decrease in counterfeit fraud. For instance, the United Kingdom experienced a 70 percent decrease in fraud for the period 2005 to 2013.

By switching to chipped cards, your business joins the global fight against fraud, in addition to:

• Protecting your business transactions
• Locking down your customers’ data
• Sidestepping credit card liability
• Supporting other merchants by following a consistent standard 

Watch for Warning Signs

As you and your employees accept credit cards in face-to-face transactions, be alert for telltale signs that the person in front of you is not who they claim they are. While not all of these signs indicate fraud, some are typical of people attempting to use a fraudulent credit card:

• Taking the credit card from a pocket instead of a purse or wallet
• Buying a large quantity of high priced items
• Getting a strange variety of items, such as a range of sizes of clothing or items with a big variety of values
• Presenting a big bundle of items just before closing time
• Suggesting you should key in the number by hand because the chip or swipe stripe doesn’t work, that the card hasn’t been reading properly
• Pre-empting the call to the bank for excessive purchases by handing you their phone, claiming they have already called the bank for the approval code

With any of these scenarios, they could be legitimate but it’s also a good time to check your instincts and gut feelings. If it feels wrong, it could very well be wrong!

If you have any one or more of these, consider reporting a potential fraudulent transaction to your financial institution.

Accept Online Payments Safely

Although chipped card payments are shown to reduce card-present fraud, unfortunately chipped cards are not effective for preventing online fraud. 

Online transactions and payments mean you must take additional precautions against fraud. Despite not being able to see the cardholder, there are other warning signs indicating a fraudulent charge:

• Orders with several of the same items, especially when it would be odd to purchase more than one, for example large appliances, watches, electric scooters, etc.
• Purchasing high value items with high resale value
• Rush or overnight orders, particularly (again) of high value items
• Orders with invalid AVSs (Address Verification Service) or CIDs (Customer Identification, three-digit codes)
• Receiving an order from countries you don’t sell to for something the shopper can buy in their own country
• Multiple purchases on a single day
• Multiple high priced purchases from the same IP address
• Orders shipped to one address but paid for with several cards
• Many transactions on one card with one billing address but different shipping addresses
• Numerous declined attempts before getting authorization

Just because you can’t see the cardholder doesn’t mean you don’t watch for fraud. It is in your business’s best interest to be vigilant for online, card-not-present fraud, along with card present fraud!

Establish a Clear Procedure

One of the best ways to protect against card fraud is to establish and enforce a clear procedure that your employees follow every time they take a credit card for a purchase. Most businesses have them; it’s in the enforcement that you protect yourself and your business.

• Insist your employees check ID with every credit/debit card purchase.How many times have you been a purchaser and you’re not asked for your ID? When you ask for a customer’s ID, you are following this rule:
  A merchant may request cardholder identification in a face-to-face environment. If the name on the identification does not match the name on the card, the merchant may decide whether to accept the card. If the cardholder does not have or is unwilling to present cardholder identification, the merchant must honor the card.
• Visually inspect the credit card. Look for any tampering or damage to the credit card that could signal a stolen credit card.
• Use Address Verification Service (AVS)to confirm the purchaser’s billing address/Zip code with the issuing financial institution. If the billing address validation fails or doesn’t agree with what’s on file, you can decline the card.
• Compare the receipt against the card itself.You might spot differences that send up red flags. Compare the names, last four digits of the account number, and card signature to what’s on the transaction receipt.

Report Fraud ASAP

Regardless of how cautious and protective you are, your business could still experience credit card fraud. If that happens, act quickly to prevent as much loss as possible.

If you have a fraudulent in-person transaction occurring:

• Call the card issuer’s authorization center and say you have a “code 10 authorization request”
• Remain calm and don’t upset the person attempting to purchase with the fraud card. You can’t be sure of someone’s reaction and your first concern should be keeping everyone safe
• Keep the card in your hand to address any questions the authorization center may ask
• Respond to the operator’s questions in a calm, low tone. If you can go to a different phone, that might be preferable. Simply answer Yes or No and follow their instructions
• Never confront or try to stop the customer under any circumstances
• If warranted, the operator will alert store, mall or local police while you wait on the phone

If you detect a fraudulent in-person transaction, the following resources can help:

• Your credit card processor, such as International Bancard
• Your business’s financial institution
• Local law enforcement authorities
• Legal counsel