4 Christmas Scams to Avoid and How Video Checks can Help Businesses

Christmas fraud refers to cyberattacks and cyber crimes during the holiday season. Typically, fraudsters target unsuspecting buyers or customers intending to seize personal and confidential details, such as credit card numbers or ID documents.

When crooks have customers’ confidential data, they can utilize them to make illegal purchases and access their bank accounts. Moreover,  it could lead to identity theft.

Since the Corona pandemic nearly two years ago, customers have lost over $500 million due to fraud, with online purchases comprising most of the reported instances.

2021 was an unprecedented year for online Christmas shopping, with customers spending over $188 billion. Moreover, online sellers might see over-booked digital shopping carts again as e-commerce continues to thrive, and with that in mind, companies must also be prepared to discourage scammers.

4 Christmas Scams To Know About

Fake Websites

Every year, fraudsters develop new techniques to take advantage of genuine buyers during holiday shopping. One of the most common fraudulent activities is creating fake e-commerce sites. Moreover, these websites are a clone of legitimate websites or companies to make customers enter personal information or financial details.

However, video KYC vendors allow companies to spot fake websites. Here are some things to look out for:

• Badly designed sites
• Asking for payment and unnecessary information
• Email addresses
• Grammatical mistakes and typos
• Less-secure payment methods

Online Shopping Fraud

Online shopping fraud is one of the most common scams this season and can be very hard to spot. Moreover, a person pretends to be an official online retailer and tries to get payment for brands they never deliver. Furthermore, fraudsters illegally use a bogus website or a genuine online retailer’s logo. Companies must utilize video chat ID verification and liveness detection to avoid becoming victims of online shopping fraud.

Christmas Delivery Scams 

Another scam is fake delivery messages and emails. Customers might get notifications saying they will get their packages in several days, but it’s nowhere to be found. This link could lead users to phishing sites.

These fake messages raise a customer’s expectations and ensure the tracking information is accurate before clicking on links. Moreover, if something seems unrealistically good, it probably is a fraud.

Gift Card Scams

Regarding gift card scams, fraudsters try to get customers’ money by emailing them from reputable companies like Amazon or Best Buy. These messages usually say that the user has won a gift card or can get a discount if they enter a specific code. Moreover, these links will take buyers to a fake website where they must provide personal information, like credit card numbers.

The best way to avoid gift card scams is to be careful while purchasing them. If a user buys these cards from a suspicious site, they must check the balance before handing over any money. It is where video checks play their role.

Perks of Having Video KYC This Holiday

• Safe, Transparent, and Secure

Regulatory departments mandate knowing your customer process primarily to check 

• Scam
• Money laundering
• Financial theft. 

Once done, the system saves videos for backup and access.

• Bottom-line impact

KYC video verification is a must and cost-intensive, with online aspects without logistic expenditures. Moreover, it is one of the most authentic and accurate solutions for fraud. According to reports, eKYC is up to 50% cost-efficient, while video know-your-customer saves up to 90% of expenses. 

• Quicker Turnaround Time (TAT)

Banking, finance and e-commerce companies are competitive industries. For any reason, if companies cannot complete the video checks, it will undoubtedly lead to a significant business loss. Previously, know-your-customers authentication used to take about twenty days, but now it has reduced the time to 15 minutes, all with a high level of digitisation.

• Saving Time & Resources

Video chat ID verification is quick and cost-effective for every market. Moreover, business owners must utilize advanced technology to replace old mechanisms, which consume a lot of time and resource-draining.

• Customer Base Expansion

Organizations can use customer onboarding videos even from regions where in-person verification is impossible.

Conclusion

Online businesses, including e-commerce markets, provide class-leading customer experiences and services. In addition, integrating modern and advanced identity verification systems, such as video checks, becomes essential for fraud prevention this Christmas season. Furthermore, it allows customers to make purchases without any hassle of fraud and theft. Video KYC vendors also facilitate the industry to comply with up-to-date procedures. Hence, these markets can offer a risk-free experience to their customers.