Credit Card Fraud Prevention #1 Retailer Concern in 2016

In an interesting interview that appeared on pymnts.com Michael Reitblat, CEO of Forter was asked about Forrester’s 2016 “State of Retail Payments 2016” report showing that the top priority among retailers today is credit card fraud prevention, replacing even the traditional core business goal of increasing sales.

One idea worth sharing is that a new course of action may be needed, one where fraud prevention becomes the priority of a third-party partner firm so that retailers can focus on the things they understand the best, i.e., providing a great customer experience and increasing sales. As Reitblat suggested, make fraud prevention someone else’s priority.

There is a lot of merit in that idea. When looking at all of the areas where retailers need to be experts, form facility leasing to employee motivation, to customer review management, adding cutting edge digital fraud prevention to the mix seems like a tall order. Many firms that specialize in online fraud prevention, that and only that, have their hands full keeping up with the latest breaches, patching holes, and minimizing damage. Staying out in front of the hackers, actually preventing fraud, seem to be elusive for everyone.

Putting that task on the shoulders of the merchants themselves is like asking each retail company to start a successful cutting edge security tech firm on the side … on top of everything else they’re responsible for.

And according to Reitblat while putting new practices in place at the level of the retailer makes fraud a priority, it often might provide the illusion of preventing fraud yet delivering results that are less than optimal. Frankly, we’re not sure the retailers have the right people or the right tools to combat fraud at the level it’s required today.

Reitblat raises the idea that merchants should expect more of their payments and risk vendors.

That’s an idea worth exploring. How to motivate those payment processors and risk vendors to step up to the plate and offer reliable, cutting edge credit card fraud prevention solutions, well, that’s another matter.

An original version of the interview we mention appeared here.