Online crime is costing retailers more than £205 million

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Account takeovers, personal identity fraud, card and refund crimes are the most expensive types of threats according to the first ever*e-crime surveycarried out by the British Retail Consortium.

Phishing*attacks were also identified as a particular problem for UK retailers, a single phishing attack highlighted in the report could have cost the company involved up to £2 million to deal with.

These figures could sound intimidating if you’re thinking of setting up a site to sell online or adding a shopping element to an existing site. However, the report also says that rapid growth in online sales is likely to continue with predictions of between 10% and 40% growth next year, so there is huge potential for online businesses to take advantage of.*

The following tips should help you to avoid the risks:

• Keep an eye on orders to spot patterns such as a number of transactions over a short period of time, especially from new customers.
• Try to check if a delivery address has been used before with different card details. Make sure your payment system and checkout are as secure as possible and based on the*latest standards
• Check that your systems and any payment service suppliers you use have up-to-date anti-virus*and anti-phishing*software<a class="lexicon-term" href="/jargon-buster/software"dfn title="Software is a general term for the various kinds of programs used to operate computers and related devices. "/acronym/dfn/a>*installed
• Plan how you will store customer data and protect it from an attack
• If you are start generating lots of transactions, particularly for high value goods, then you might need to consider investing in online fraud prevention tools such as*Verified by Visa*or*MasterCard SecureCode

Our guide to*getting started with online sales*has more information and advice on taking payments securely and compliance.

You can also test if your business making the most of the*internet*by taking*NetCheck, our free online tool which offers tips and advice on how businesses can make the most of the web.









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