Safe & sound

Fall weather is slowly settling in, and while that means your sales are starting to wind down, it also means the holidays are right around the corner. Scammers take advantage of the fact that you’re in a flurry of activity during this time. Read on to ensure you’re keeping yourself protected from fraudulent charges.

Why should I care? If you’ve never been a victim of fraud, it’s hard to see why you should worry about them. We certainly hope you never do get a fraudulent charge – but as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Scammers get more and more tricky every day, and “liability for fraud” can include so much more than just the amount of the charge itself – you may also be responsible for reimbursing the credit card companies for their investigation costs or be susceptible to damages and/or costs customers may have incurred due to the fraud.

• Never take credit card payments over the phone. We know it’s tempting to take all the sales you can get, but if they’re not willing to come into your store to pay, that’s a red flag that their payment isn’t legit.
• Don’t ship large or expensive items. If someone’s looking to have fitness equipment or a high-end bike shipped to them – especially out of state – and is willing to pay high shipping and/or insurance costs, they’re probably not planning on actually paying for them.
• Be wary. Like your parents likely told you as a child: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers play on your hopes for large sales – and they don’t care what the cost is to you.
• Use your hardware. The Ingenico ISC250 is built to take EMV (“chip”) cards and digitally record customers’ signatures. Run all payments through the payment terminal – if a customer’s card can’t be processed using your hardware, ask them to use a different payment method. While some issues are due to the fact that the issuing bank did not fully implement EMV standards correctly, and are therefore beyond the customer’s control, it’s equally possible that the card has been tampered with. It’s better to err on the safe side.
• Keep updated. This includes Ascend, the Ingenico ISC250, and Windows®. These updates include improvements designed to make your system more secure and keep you up-to-date on security standards.
• Beef up your security. Make sure you’re following security best practices on all of your computers throughout the store. Not sure what that entails? Complete our Ascend University module and read our knowledge base article on PC security to learn how.

Fall 2017 is here: After just over a week, nearly 58% of our retailers worldwide have updated to Fall 2017. Have you joined them? This update includes technician schedule settings, pre-defined Spaces, expanded Quickies, better processing for branded MasterCard EMV cards, and more. Check out the release notes for full details, complete the Ascend University modules and read the knowledge base articles to learn about the new features, and update today!

Upcoming limited support: It’s CX season, and we like to give our team a chance to watch the races. This week, there will be limited support available on Wednesday, September 20 and Friday, September 22 from 2:30 pm-6 pm. The support line will still be open – but you may experience longer wait times than usual. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, and appreciate your patience and understanding!

Need help now? Check out our online self-help resources. If you can’t find an answer there, please feel free to submit a support ticket and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

September deals & specials: Time is running out to take advantage of our September special pricing – take 10% off all peripherals, and 5% off all PCs. Don’t delay – place your order today!

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Tags: Ascend update, Critical Update, EMV, Fall, fall 2017, fraud, security, software update, Update, updates, windows updates