The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect businesses in various ways. In some cases, it’s causing sales of a data breach or attack planning on the Dark Web but there are also other possible outcomes that can be quite risky for your business when sensitive information is sold online and ends up going public through hacking schemes.

As the effects of the COVID pandemic continue to unfold, businesses are finding new and innovative ways to tackle fraud. Fraudsters are exploiting loopholes in systems and taking advantage of people’s fears during this time of crisis.

It often leads companies into bankruptcy court as well due to their inability to manage such large scale disasters from internal weaknesses within management practices.

To prevent fraudsters from succeeding, businesses are turning to technology tools such as dark web monitoring to help them identify and scan the dark web for monitoring suspicious activity to see if data has been compromised.

5 Ways to Protect Businesses From Being Susceptible to Fraudulent Activity

Businesses of all sizes can be targets for fraud particularly since the estimated daily cost of fraud in the UK alone has surpassed £375 million.

Fortunately, there are steps that businesses can take to help protect themselves from fraud. Here are five ways to combat fraud in businesses:

1. Be Suspicious

In an industry where growth is fuelled by investment, fraudsters have been quick to exploit the market by offering ambitious suppliers what appear to be too good to be true deals.

Nevertheless, by being sceptical, businesses can protect themselves from these fraudsters, avoiding deals that are likely to leave them out of pocket.

Here are four tips for remaining suspicious when approached by suppliers:

• Check their credentials
• Be cautious about unsolicited approaches
• Ask probing questions
• Get specific contracts

2. Be Aware of Fraud Vulnerability

Businesses are always susceptible to fraud. There are many different ways that a fraudster can exploit a business, and it is important for business owners to be aware of these vulnerabilities.

One way that businesses can protect themselves from fraud is by identifying areas where they are vulnerable. For example, a business may be vulnerable to credit card fraud if it does not have a secure payment system in place.

3. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Business owners are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to protect their companies from fraud. And while there are many steps that can be taken to help safeguard your business, using artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most effective methods.

By harnessing the power of AI, businesses can detect patterns in data that would otherwise be missed by human analysts. AI can also be used to monitor transactions in real-time.

This helps to ensure that no suspicious activity goes unnoticed. And if any fraudulent activity is detected, AI can help to quickly isolate and investigate the issue.

4. Secure your Personal Banking and Credit Cards

It’s always important to be careful about where your money goes. Make sure to secure your personal banking and credit cards. Don’t keep all of it in one place and that if something does happen, the fraudster doesn’t get their hands on every single penny.

If you have separate accounts for each type then it will be easier when reporting on taxes or dealing with an issue like the fraudulent activity that may occur because there are fewer chances than if all account information could potentially get compromised at once.

5. Having Good Anti-Virus Software

There are a few things business owners can do to protect themselves from fraud in the digital marketplace. One is to make sure they have a good anti-virus and anti-spyware program installed on their computer, and that they keep it up to date.

They should also create strong passwords and never use the same password at more than one site.

Types of Fraud that Businesses Commonly Faced during Pandemic

There were many issues that arose during the course of this past year due to fraudsters trying to take advantage of the pandemic, and companies are looking back and realising what they learned throughout the whole process.

There were many types of frauds revolving around people trying to take advantage of the situation in order to gain money.

Some of them are as follows:

• Credit card fraud
• Mortgage fraud
• Identity theft
• Ponzi and pyramid schemes
• Medicare and insurance fraud
• Investment fraud

Conclusion

To take action against fraud, companies are using more advanced security measures and turning towards artificial intelligence (AI) for help in determining if an email or call might be fraudulent.

With every scammer seeking ways to fool you into giving up your personal information, it’s important to stay vigilant.