It’s March, and the #1 topic on the minds of most Canadians is tariffs. How will this affect purchasing decisions moving forward? Al welcomes Gary Sands, Senior VP @ Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) to the podcast. They talk about how independent Canadian grocers are already preparing for the imminent tariffs and what this could mean for consumers. March is also Fraud Prevention Month. Al chats with Amisha Parikh, VP Security Solutions @ Mastercard. They talk about Mastercard’s latest research on the impact of fraud on Canadian’s financial health.
It’s March, and the #1 topic on the minds of most Canadians is tariffs. How will this affect purchasing decisions moving forward? Al welcomes Gary Sands, Senior VP @ Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) to the podcast. They talk about how independent Canadian grocers are already preparing for the imminent tariffs and what this could mean for consumers.
March is also Fraud Prevention Month. Al chats with Amisha Parikh, VP Security Solutions @ Mastercard. They talk about Mastercard’s latest research on the impact of fraud on Canadian’s financial health.
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Allan: [00:00:00] Welcome to March. Unfortunately, instead of looking forward to the warmer weather, the first day of spring, green beer, or even the beginning of baseball season, all Canadians can think about right now are tariffs. And for good reason. Things are about to get more expensive. Again. So what can we do about it?
There's a growing "Buy Canadian" movement sweeping the nation, but has that had any effect on the prices of things like, say, groceries? This month, I've got the perfect person to answer that question. I'm chatting with Gary Sands. He's a VP from the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers. Gary has a lot to say about what the tariffs will mean at the checkout for Canadians. You're gonna want to hear this.
Of course, March is also Fraud Prevention Month, and while that may seem like the least of your worries, it really isn't. I've got a couple of interviews chock full of great, actionable advice to help make sure your business is protected from fraud. First, I've got Amisha Parikh, VP of Cyber and Intelligence [00:01:00] Solutions at Mastercard. They just published a report on the impact of fraud on Canadians financial health, and Amisha is here to share their findings.
And finally, we have our very own David Litwin, who has some great advice on how you can protect your business from fraud. It's a packed episode with very important information, information we all need to know.
Why? Because it's Just Good Business.
I'm joined by Gary Sands. He is the Senior VP of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers. Gary, thank you so much for joining me today on Just Good Business. I'm
Gary: really happy to join you this
Allan: morning. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what your organization does?
Gary: Well, we, there's about 6, 900 independent grocers in Canada.
Um, and in some provinces, like in Ontario, for example, the majority, 59 percent of the brick and mortar [00:02:00] grocery stores are, uh, are independents. Now, that doesn't, of course, translate into buying power. There's the big chains out there, but There's a lot of stores and they play a significant role in providing food to a lot of communities in the country.
And what we do at the Federation of Independent Groceries is we obviously advocate on behalf of our members, both to governments, plural, and to industry in the broadest sense of the word. We also run the two largest trade show conventions slash, it's a combined trade show convention in Canada with thousands of attendees.
So that's,
Allan: that's basically what we do. Okay, that's great. Now you mentioned government. I mean, we just recently had the federal tax holiday. And what was the general feeling among your members about that tax holiday? Did they see any sales increase or benefits?
Gary: There were no sales increases. People don't run out when they're, especially in the food sector, you don't see consumers running out to buy things they wouldn't normally buy because the GST [00:03:00] isn't on that product.
And for our members, like many other retailers, it was a, it was a bit of an administrative hassle, uh, and on cost, you know, changing the systems and now they've had to change back again. But we didn't oppose the measure because we understood, uh, where the government was coming from. Uh, it was all about affordability for the consumers.
It wasn't about helping business and we recognize that. In fact, the announcement of the measure was at one of our member stores where the prime minister made the announcement. We agreed to host it just exactly for the reasons I just outlined. While we weren't terribly thrilled about the administrative hassle and costs, we knew, we know how much consumers are feeling around affordability.
Allan: Yeah, for sure. And I mean, just to be clear, the stores didn't maybe see the, the benefit, but obviously anytime Canadians can save money, it's a good thing. That was our view. Now, uh, you know, sticking to politics and obviously the, the big [00:04:00] topic that's on everyone's mind, everyone's talking about it as obviously the tariffs and the tariff threats that are coming from the U S how are your members perceiving these?
Gary: Well, it's something that is unprecedented in terms of what we're seeing. I mean, I, I, myself, I can tell you I've been with CFIG for, for well over 20 years and I've never seen anything like it. And this, in terms of the intensity of what we're feeling and seeing right now, it's almost by, The same thing we had during the beginning of COVID realm, but the, what, what our members are telling us is consumers are demanding, and I use that word advisedly, it's they're demanding, they're not asking, they're demanding to see more Canadian products and more.
It's a prominent identification of what is Canadian, right now, you know, we've provided some additional signage to our members around, you know, who they are, uh, because the things we have to be careful about when we talk about buying Canadian is there's products that are. product of [00:05:00] Canada, there's made in Canada, but also there's companies that we know to the, to the consumer are very recognizable as American companies.
But let's take Pepsi, Frito Lay, very obviously an American company, but they source their chips. All the potatoes are sourced from here in Canada. They process them at four plants in Canada, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and general Quebec. They employ over 10, 000 Canadians. How do you, how do you identify that? You know, that's, that's where you have to be, uh, careful about this.
But, uh, I guess I would add that this isn't too much of a challenge for an independent grocer. Independent grocers already buy local, uh, hiring local, uh, they're independently owned, obviously, so they live in the communities that they serve. So this is Basically part of their DNA, that they have, uh, ingrained in their business
Allan: model.
I mean, you mentioned the Buy Canadian movement, and of course, if you're on social media, if you're on Facebook, you see it all the time, Buy Canadian, Buy Canadian. I think there's, [00:06:00] uh, one specific, uh, Facebook group that grew to almost a million, I don't know if they're at a million, uh, members yet, but they're close.
And it's, it's a huge movement. What does that mean for purchasing decisions? You know, are they looking for other opportunities?
Gary: What we're seeing right now is there's definitely, as I said, the huge demand for, for Canadian products. And right now, good or bad, they're looking at products that are anything but American.
So even products that are coming in from other countries that aren't American, they're, they're going there. And I have to tell you, some members are now sourcing products from. Uh, other countries, and they have no option but to look at other jurisdictions now because the threat of the tariffs is there.
So instead of buying your grapes and lettuce from California, for example, I know some retailers are now looking at other options in South America, for example. I think if I could just add one thing, I think what's important now for the country [00:07:00] is. This also gives us an opportunity to do a bit of a reset.
We now know that I think we have to assume the tariffs are going to come in, but at a minimum, this is going to be a rough four years.
David: Yeah.
Gary: I think what Canada has to now do is start looking at what we can do domestically, not just to reduce interprovincial trade barriers and have free trade for once in Canada, but also fair trade in Canada.
And what I mean by that is, That we have to invest more in some of our transportation and supply chain infrastructure. We have to be able to look at the fact that we have communities where the cost of transportation distribution to those areas of the country, rural and remote, are already sometimes double what they are in other areas of the country.
We have to now. Look at making some investments in those areas. I don't think we can now take for granted the interdependent relationship. We've had
Allan: with the states. [00:08:00] Yeah. I mean, for so long now, we've been maybe even sourcing our products up here, sending it down there to be processed only to buy it back.
And why aren't we doing that ourselves? Right? Exactly.
Gary: And I think that now's the time that we have to look at that, um, in some ways, and that's a good thing that's come out of Donald Trump and the threat of tariffs is now is perhaps forcing Canada to do what they should have done years ago, but we've been forced by someone outside of Canada to do it.
Allan: Now, I was born and raised in the Holland Marsh in Bradford, Ontario, and of course that's, you know, one of the biggest sources of many vegetables and produce for all of Canada, but also down in the States. So I know the demand for Canadian goods is just going to increase. Are our suppliers, are our farmers, are they ready for that demand, do you think?
Gary: I think they are, but again, being ready and being able to do it are two different things. And it's going back to the point I was just making previously. It's a great thing to want to sell Canadian products in your stores and get them to, but we have to be [00:09:00] able to get them to those stores. You know, again, independents are in a myriad of rural and remote communities.
I mean, they're in urban areas as well, but there's a lot of communities in this country where they're it, they're the only grocery store. So, Yeah, we want to be able to sell more Canadian products, but we've got to be able to get those products to those stores, or we have a food security issue.
Allan: Yeah, good point.
Obviously, another big topic for the last few years coming out of the pandemic is inflation, right? Uh, we went through hyperinflation and then it's kind of settled down a bit, but this could lead to more now. What are grocers doing to maybe help Curb that or manage that? That's a tough question.
Gary: Uh, and, and it's one that I think a lot of consumers are asking of brochures in general, but, you know, I don't want to sound like a commercial, but the fact is an independent grocer is on an overall margin of about 2%.
So it's very difficult for them to do anything more than what they're already doing. And the fact [00:10:00] is, we are seeing a huge number of cost increases in goods. Now, we don't point the fingers at the suppliers. We understand what's driving up those costs. But the fact is, they're still going up. And if you're an independent grocer on a margin of 2 percent and I'll give you an example.
Next month, we are being told to be an increase in egg prices, about 50 cents a dozen. Wow. How do you absorb that if you're an independent grocer? So when goods go up 7, 8, 9, 10 percent. Again, on a 2 percent margin, you have to pass that on to the consumer. If you don't, you're going to be out of business. So it's a good question, but it's one where I have to be honest and transparent with, with consumers.
There's not much more that we can do than what we haven't been doing already.
Allan: Yeah. It's a tough one. I mean, when you have stuff like a bird flu and, and, you know, climate change affecting crops all over the, I mean, it's, uh, What can you do? Right. Viruses, uh,
Gary: you know, uh, flooding and wildfires in Canada and in California, we still [00:11:00] have the lingering effects of the Ukraine, uh, Russia conflict, uh, going on.
I, I, you know, I've said before a few times, it's like the four horsemen of the apocalypse took up careers in the food industry. There's just, it's not a question of what's happened. It's what hasn't happened. And those all impact costs,
Allan: right? So how can then Canadian businesses and consumers support. The independent grocers obviously shop more local.
Um, is there anything else though that that can be done?
Gary: It's just that supporting the independent grocer. I think we're, we're looking to governments to do more to support independence. In fact, that's been a recommendation of the competition bureau last year that the government governments, plural federal and provincial have to do more to provide more support to independent grocers.
And that's something we'd like to see. And we've put forward a number of measures to them that too long to go into on this podcast. But, um, uh, there are things that government is now going to have to look at. In the context of the issue of the tariffs that we were previously discussing.
Allan: Okay, [00:12:00] and a great place to end this, but if somebody wants to learn more about what your organization is doing or what is being put forth to the governments, where can they go?
Gary: They can go on our website. That's usually available in the non gated area. There are some things on the website that are available to our members only, but that information is generally available. And if anybody wants to reach out to me directly, I'm happy to provide them with some of the, the examples of some of the measures that we think would be helpful.
Allan: That website is the cfig. ca, correct? That's right. Right. I'll post a link to that in the show notes. Uh, Gary, thank you so much for your time today. It was, it was great to talk to you and you provided some great information for us to think about.
Gary: Thank you for having me.
Allan: I'm joined by Amisha Parikh. She is the VP of security solutions at Mastercard. Amisha, thank you so much for joining me today.
Amisha: Thank you so much for having me, Al.
Allan: Uh, VP of security solutions, uh, MasterCard. What is it you do in your role?
Amisha: I'm [00:13:00] responsible for the Canadian market for our suite of fraud and risk and security solutions, which actually across the entire sort of, um, journey.
When we think about identity, you know, protecting against financial crimes, resiliency of our network. Thinking about the use of AI to protect against fraud. And then when we think even about after the, uh, transaction has occurred, Things like disputes are back fraud. We see things like first party fraud happening in the ecosystem.
So we have a very robust suite of technology solutions and capabilities to address these. And me and my team are responsible for managing this for Canada, you know, according to the Canadian anti fraud center in 2024 Canadians lost over 630 million dollars. to fraud, and that's only what's reported, right?
That's affecting over 34, 000 victims, and we know that, oftentimes, only 5 10 percent actually gets reported. So we know that the size of loss could be significantly higher and will only continue to scale. You
Allan: bring up a good point of how many cases, [00:14:00] and these are just the ones that are reported, so there's a lot of kind of embarrassment, maybe, of businesses who are victims of fraud.
Who may not report because they think maybe they're alone or they're embarrassed about it. And I guess that's the importance of awareness campaigns like this, where it's like, no, you're not alone. This happens to everyone, and the best thing you can do is actually report it.
Amisha: How quickly you report it is also key, because we know that with the movement of funds, um, even into alternative payment currencies and other things, the ability to track this becomes more and more difficult as time goes on.
There's an absolutely an emotional element to, like, how did it happen to me? I'm so vigilant, I know, I'm aware. Even with awareness, though, it can happen, and the importance of, like, reporting it right away, um, just increases the For, you know, between your financial institution, law enforcement, to be able to track down these bad actors.
Allan: March is obviously a fraud prevention month. And you're here to talk about a report that MasterCard just recently put out about fraud in Canada.
Amisha: So we did conduct a nationwide survey and [00:15:00] it was interesting from the insights that we were able to glean. Um, even though, you know, 90 percent of Canadians are aware of the threat of financial fraud, we found that only 7 percent actually see fraud prevention.
As something that they prioritize and that really just highlights the gap between awareness and, you know, people's prioritization of taking action, right? And helping to protect themselves and we found 76 percent of people are concerned about how fraud could impact their financial health. So we know it's on people's radar.
They're thinking about this. It's in news headlines. They're hearing about things that are happening. And unfortunately, more and more, right? We're seeing instances of this in like. Everyday interactions, um, but more than half of Canadians also believe that stopping fraud is a collective effort, a really important point because there's this onus on the collective involving, you know, consumers involving businesses and financial institutions and really how do we all work together in this fight against.
Allan: Now, most of our listeners are either [00:16:00] small business owners or entrepreneurs. Uh, can you maybe just expand a little bit more on, on maybe what the business owners role in preventing fraud might be?
Amisha: We know small businesses are the cornerstone of our economy in Canada. They count for 98 percent of the country's businesses and maintaining consumer trust is essential, right?
For growth and stability of these businesses. Which in turn is important for all of our local economies and then more broadly the economy in Canada. We know that 70 percent of Canadians say they trust businesses who, you know, use security technology. And so really important when we think about small businesses to have access to tools.
Not just to protect their own business, but also to maintain that trust with consumers.
Allan: Can you give me like some examples of the different types of fraud that we're looking at?
Amisha: There's so many, and we want to sort of bucket them into some of the main types that we're seeing. And we know these are evolving all the time.
You know, we see scams. Happening a lot, and I think we hear about scams a lot, really, where we have a bad actor in the ecosystem trying to [00:17:00] trick a victim when we think about in the context of financial fraud, really tricking someone into making a payment, sending money, right, and authorized Payment or taking money from another account.
So we, we see all of these instances where our scams are taking place in different scenarios, right? Whether it's in the vein of impersonating a business, whether it's something that's relationship focused, it's like you hear about romance scams, whether it's, you know, impersonating a business in the context of Pulling on something emotional and we know seniors are being targeted.
We see all of these instances where boils down to being able to trick somebody by building a relationship or building trust, um, or impersonating an entity that the individual already has trust in. And I think the hardest part about these is. People are authorizing, right? This transfer of funds,
Gary: right?
Amisha: So it makes it even harder to detect because it actually doesn't show up as a fraudulent transaction per se, but the individual was tricked into sending the funds.
Allan: I mentioned what. Small business owners can do to help prevent, [00:18:00] obviously already talked about some of that, you know, using the right tools and letting their customers know that they're using these tools, obviously the most secure transactions are card present transactions, and we encourage them to do that, is there anything else on the small business side that maybe they can do?
Amisha: I think this is a really good question. I mean, at MasterCard, we're committed to, you know, empowering small businesses to be able to grow their businesses by securing their digital environments, right? I mean, we're in an. Environment where digital transactions are going to continue to grow, we know interactions online are going to continue to scale on.
We really believe that small business owners who face a higher risk of these types of fraud can even simple changes can really make a difference by using fraud prevention tools and technologies. They can really put those in place, but awareness is also key. And that's awareness on both sides, right?
Awareness for the business owner and what they should be looking for in a world where convenience and seamless, um, transaction is so critical, obviously from an experience standpoint, sometimes the introduction of a little bit of friction is [00:19:00] actually necessary for protection, right? Checking in piece of ID, making sure that you're using, you know, verification tools that are available.
Um, and I think we see a lot of these things. And when we think about the investment or the use of technology, being able to do that and taking those steps
Allan: for sure. And I, I can't emphasize more that awareness obviously is the big key. And that's, that's the reason for this month being fraud awareness month, where can folks learn more in order to gain this knowledge and learn more about what MasterCard is doing to help with fraud prevention.
Amisha: There's so many resources out there. I mean, a quick Google search, right? And you'll see a long list of like protecting. I think the important thing also is make sure that you've checked your resources, that you're going to credible resources when you're looking for information. Right. Um, because we want to make sure that, you know, we're relying on not just anybody who's posting on Google, but that we're going to reliable sources to look for that.
Um, I think MasterCard is dedicated to supporting Canadian small businesses and staying resilient against these types of threat. You know, we do offer. Broad prevention [00:20:00] tools, but what we also have is a MasterCard Trust Center, and we offer actually a free cybersecurity assessment tool through the MasterCard Trust Center, which helps business owners understand their own posture in terms of their cybersecurity and their knowledge on fraud and risk, um, and also highlighting what their needs are.
To be able to secure their business and pointing them to credible resources that they could leverage to address those. Um, it's a complimentary tool. All businesses can access it.
Allan: Okay. Thank you so much. I'm going to post links to both your cybersecurity assessment tool and the mastercard trust center in the show notes of this episode for anyone who wants to learn more.
I mean, sure. Thank you so much for your time today.
Amisha: Thank you so much for having me.
Allan: I'm joined today by my colleague, David Litwin. He's a manager of external comms at Menera's. David, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me, Al. Now March is [00:21:00] Fraud Prevention Month and we have a big report on fraud numbers in Canada that we're going to talk about today. So let's start with how big a problem is fraud in Canada?
David: Yeah, before we dive into that big question, we'll start with a little bit of context about what the report entails and like some of the methodology behind the numbers that we're reporting on. So. The source of our data in this report is reported fraud cases to MNRS. These are instances that merchants have brought to us.
Our fraud team has helped investigate and resolve for these merchants. And by taking a look at these reported fraud cases, we get a really good idea of what types of trends there are in terms of fraud that they're experiencing and how these trends are evolving. By breaking that down, we can help get businesses really actionable pieces of advice on how to prevent different fraud.
Given that then, what were the findings for this year? When we take a look at the high of data in terms of the actual number of cases that were reported to Moneris, we actually saw a decrease in fraud here. So that decrease was about 15 percent and. While it shows that progress has been made, there's always more work that can be done.[00:22:00]
And I think a question that arises from that statistic is, if fraud cases are down, should businesses still care for fraud prevention? And the answer is absolutely yes. So, we're taking a look at reported fraud cases, but when we do that, it's important to remember that a lot of cases go unreported. So more often than not, actual fraudulent activity is often higher than this data indicates.
Meaning it's always important for businesses to prioritize fraud protection. Protecting your business is just as important as growing it.
Allan: You make a good point and I spoke with Amitra Parikh yesterday from MasterCard and we talked about it then too. Oftentimes when you're a victim or many people who are victims of fraud won't report it out of maybe embarrassment or shame that they're the only ones.
Another aspect of
David: this too is that oftentimes there's a little bit of a delay in terms of when fraud cases are reported. Some types of fraud are committed and it takes a little bit of time for the merchant to realize that it's occurred and then report it and then act on it. But while there is like a delay and not all cases are reported, taking a look at these fraud cases as well can still give us valuable insight into how these different trends are changing or how they're changing [00:23:00] over time.
Um, and by looking at fraud cases as well, we can really unpack what best practices are effective and helping. Prevent certain types of fraud.
Allan: Now, the numbers you have are across Canada, nationally. What kind of variances do you see like region by region? When we take a look at
David: share of fraud cases by the different provinces, you see the breakdown based on where people mostly live.
That's not surprising. One of the things that is surprising perhaps is in some ways, the lack of variation. Um, take a look at the most common types of fraud and the second most common types of fraud, pretty universally, whether you're on the east coast or the west coast, Ontario or Quebec, the most common type of fraud that businesses are experiencing is called moto fraud.
And then second to that would be types of fraud that take advantage of the refilling process. Right. So talk a bit about moto fraud. What does that mean? Like, what does moto stand for? Moto stands for mail order, telephone order, and it is a type of fraud. That's takes advantage of the chargeback system. So when we look at the data, it accounted for 62 percent of all [00:24:00] reported cases in 2024.
And that's a pretty significant statistic.
Allan: Uh, it's hard to believe people are still, you know, giving you their credit cards over the phone.
David: I know it is hard to believe, but fraudsters benefit from it. And it helps us like unpack why this is such a common type of fraud. And it's because Modo transactions are inherently risky.
And that's because taking card details over the phone or by mail and then manually entering them. Poses a significant and high risk for chargeback fraud because of a cardholder disputes the charge completed by amount of transaction It's the business that's left with the loss and there's nothing they can do to dispute it because they can't verify the Purchaser of that transaction.
We would recommend instead if like you can't do a card present transaction It's often said for a secure online payment gateway like Moneris Checkout, and that integrates with a variety of different fraud prevention solutions. A great one specific to this type of fraud would be 3D Secure, and transactions that are authenticated with 3D Secure shift the chargeback liability from the merchant to the card issuer, which further protects them from
Allan: [00:25:00] losses.
Okay, we have modal fraud. Is there another type of fraud that is prevalent that we should be looking for?
David: Yeah, so fraud is often a crime of opportunity and an opportunity that fraudsters find is taking advantage of the refund process. So when we take a look at different fraud cases associated with anything to do with, like, refunds, so that would be refund on stolen devices, general abuse of the refund process, or even employee led refund fraud.
Collectively, all of those different types of fraud account for almost 30 percent of all the cases that are reported. So it's a vulnerability that fraudsters like to expose if not properly accounted for. And we've seen in the case data that cases involving the refund process also grew in share by 11 percent year over year.
So it's one that's grown over time and cases involving the refund process is also the second most common fraud type in many regions. That would be Atlantic, Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. What businesses should keep in mind knowing this piece of information is that fraud related to the refund process is very easy to prevent and can be done simply by taking just small [00:26:00] steps.
One of the best things you can do is ensure you've applied passwords to the terminals that only authorized employees know and limit access to the refund process by using the administrative restrictions on terminals which are readily available.
Allan: Now you'd mentioned stolen terminals and that's one that's on the rise too.
Terminal theft. How does that look? Why would fraudsters want to steal terminals?
David: There are layers to that, and it's a really interesting one to, to unpack and take a look at from a business perspective. So I'd mentioned that the refund process, they collectively a bunch of different types, they account for 30%.
The biggest one of that group of fraud types that, that, you know, are part of that refund fraud group is refund on stolen devices. So it isn't just the fraudster taking the device and the business experiencing the loss for the cost of that device. It's actually because the fraudster is taking the device and using it typically to reload prepaid cards through the refundability and terminals.
So it's that mechanism that leads to. A more significant portion of the loss for the business. When we look at the case data for refund on stolen [00:27:00] devices, the reported cases for this fraud type grew 3 percent year over year, and it now accounts for 16 percent of all reported cases, and that makes it single handedly the second most common type of fraud that Monera sees in Canada.
Allan: Now you mentioned fraud is a crime of opportunity back to how many times I've been at a restaurant and having the server just leave the terminal on the table because they're busy serving another table. I mean, there's your opportunity right there. So I guess that kind of outlines the importance of awareness, not just for the business owner, but also for employees.
Absolutely. Yeah. So.
David: Making sure your employees are aware of the different fraud types and the steps that they can take to be a part of your fraud prevention strategy can reduce the chances of fraud happening significantly. Some great tips for business owners and staff is to simply avoid leaving terminals unattended.
In the example you gave as well, if you're a restaurant owner, uh, be present at the table during the transaction and observe it while attempting to leave the device at the table and do something else. It does create a risk for terminal theft, and it can be easily avoided by just being [00:28:00] present and observing the transaction.
In addition to that as well, while observing the transaction, some of the tips as well are to keep an eye on like how the transaction is flowing. If it's taking longer than expected or there's extra buttons being pressed, it's often a good idea to intervene and to help out the customer just to ensure that there isn't something else going on with the tampering of the device.
In addition, when you're closing up shop for the end of the day, it's a good idea to take inventory of your terminals, to monitor their condition and take a look for any, you know, indications of tampering or, or damage. If possible as well, process transactions using your terminal in front of a security monitoring system.
And then when you're closing up shop for the day, it's a good idea to keep terminals locked and out of sight.
Allan: Great tips. And I mean, I think number one tip though is to report it too. Because I feel like as a business owner, if somebody took my terminal and be like, Oh, that's a pain. But it's just a piece of hardware, but actually the biggest risk is later on where they can process those refunds and that could cost you big time.
The sooner
David: you report a stolen device, the sooner [00:29:00] we can help you with that stolen device. So really, really critical thing is as soon as you notice a device has been stolen or lost. Uh, report it to your payment processor, because what they can do is they can remotely deactivate the terminal, and that helps prevent further loss, those significant losses from this type of fraud from occurring.
And in addition, as you're contacting your payment processor, they can also provide guidance and help with other things. For example, help with filling out a police report to recover the device. As well as sending you a new device in the interim to keep your business operating smoothly.
Allan: All great tips. I think number one, I awareness report it right away.
And obviously, uh, there's some amazing fraud prevention tools available for our merchants to. To be able to mitigate some of that, David, if folks want to learn more about those tools and about anything else fraud related, where can they go?
David: So March is fraud prevention month. We haven't made that clear enough already.
Um, and because of that, Monaris is running an awareness campaign, uh, our website and across social channels. So feel free to check out the campaign we're running called what the [00:30:00] fraud. That will entail a lot of different tips and best practices as well as solutions and everything a business owner would need to know with regard to what Froggy tells and how they can
Allan: combat it.
And I'll post links to all of that in the show notes of this episode. David, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for having me.
And that's all we have for this month. Once again, please check the show notes for links to everything we talked about in this episode. If you have any questions about anything business related, you can email us at podcasts at Menares. com and we'll try to answer them in future episodes. On behalf of Gary, Amisha, David, myself, and the rest of Menares.
It's just good business saying thank you for listening. See you in April.