Payment frauds have increased a lot since the last decade, and one of the major reasons for these frauds is the use of unsafe systems by various businesses to process payments of their customers. The card numbers, CVV, passwords, and otp numbers are not enough nowadays as hackers have grown smarter over time as well. None of your data is safe without the use of advanced methods, which cancels out the probability of wrongful access to your financial information. One of the most advanced methods that reduce the risk of illegal and illegitimate payments is using Biometric sensor. It is one of the most secure ways to have your data protected against hacks and other illegal activities. because it requires your fingerprint to confirm if you are authorized to execute a transaction or not.
Biometrics is being implemented in many fields of work like banking, KYC, mobile security, and the most recent in Point of Sale systems. POS systems are the hub of all the transactions happening in a retail store, and securing it is the prime aim of every merchant. Although a POS system is something that couldn’t be hacked easily, the concern is always there looming over the owner’s head. To have this threat eliminated, the use of biometric in the POS system has started. These systems are specially made to tackle various problems in which impersonation, identity theft, and fraud take place. The current generation biometric sensors are so advanced that it is had to penetrate, either electronically or physically.
Biometric in POS systems, can prevent most of the problems, including:
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Information Theft –
The most common concern of people using their credit cards in a retail store is their personal information and credit card theft. Many customers have suffered data leaks in the past that may prove to be very costly to him or her. But thanks to biometric authentication, this problem no longer exists as biometric POS systems transfer their data in a highly encrypted form and that data, if retrieved by a hacker (still being a near-impossible feat), cannot be decrypted. These sensors only allow the owner of the card to authorize the payment. That way, the chances of fraud become nonexistent.
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Fake Punch-Ins –
Fake punch-ins are not new in the corporate world as money is the evil everyone loves to have. No one wants to give away the money coming to him and sometimes an easy method to keep your money isn’t always the legal one as well. In retail stores, employees do work very hard to impress their customers in every way possible, but these impressions sometimes don’t limit to customers as the gesture of helping is common between office friends as well. Various office employees punch each others’ cards to help them look present in the office while they enjoy their leave for the day. It also helps you overcome these kinds of problems by making it compulsory for your staff to scan their fingerprints in the biometric sensors and use it to mark their attendance.
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Payment Frauds –
As discussed in the first point as well, many people try to use stolen debit and credit cards to pay at retail stores. But a biometric sensor in your POS system helps you recognize of the card is being used by the owner of the card or not. This leads to having a system that can save your customer’s money, as well as diminish your chances of getting sued for not verifying a person’s authority of performing the transaction. Biometric sensors also provide various data like home many accounts a person has registered in his name and if your customer is even trying to rip your money by having multiple rewards or programs originally meant for one account per person. The end of payment frauds can only become a reality when everyone starts using Biometric-based POS machines, and that brings us to our next point.
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Know Your Customer –
The KYC or Know Your Customer is something that our government has already initiated, but the private sector is implementing this as well. You can use your POS system to keep track of your customer purchases and give them the best deals possible. It would also help you recognize the customers who visit your store various times in a month and make better custom packages for them. You in-house KYC can also enable you to run your shop offline as well so that you may never need an external database to find out your existing customers.
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Employee Theft –
According to a survey, Retailers in the USA stand to lose almost 50 Billion Dollars every year due to various frauds happening in the industry. If that number isn’t surprising enough for you, then the breakdown suggests 37% of all these losses are accountable as employee thefts. Any person working in a retail store steals money from either the customer or the store itself. This problem is growing at a massive rate as the employees now trying to find the loopholes in payment systems and exploit them. This is one of the major reasons for the rise of biometric for POS software. In biometric POS, every employee has to register himself with their fingerprints, which makes it impossible for employees to exploit customers and put the blame on stores or owners. Also, these thefts are generally done via other employees’ id, but biometric extinguishes these chances as well because of the use of fingerprints in place of Ids and passwords.
A Biometric system is not only a security system but an extension of your POS, with many more possibilities than just securing the system. It can be used to complete gesture-based tasks such as uploading downloading resources, assigning tasks, managing attendance, and much more.
Biometric systems might be a bit costly but it makes your information and customer data secured. Having installed it with your POS system will be good for your business as the extra layer of security it provides. If you are looking to secure your financial transactions and prevent another kind of store theft, opt-in for the Biometric sensor with your Point of Sale system.
