5 ways to safeguard your businesses against fraud in 2024

MANILA, Philippines — Businesses of all sizes, and across various channels—whether online or brick and mortar—are all vulnerable to fraud. And as scams get even more sophisticated, it becomes more essential for entrepreneurs to double up on safety precautions for their everyday business transactions.

In this day and age, both customers and businesses have access to a slew of digital tools and guidance from various sources that they can use to keep themselves safe from fraud.

In this article, Metrobank, one of the leading banks in the Philippines catering to business, also shares useful advice to help business owners #FightFraud as they run their day-to-day operations.

Metrobank shares five anti-fraud tips to help entrepreneurs to build their defense against these attacks.

1. Monitor transactions regularly

Efficient tracking of transactions is essential for managing cashflow and detecting irregularities promptly.

For businesses with a Metrobank corporate account, the bank encourages them to avail of e-SOA (electronic Statement of Account) to closely monitor transactions—from the receivables, to government dues, and payments to suppliers.

Clients can even get a view of the scanned copy of the check payments that their company issues—to ensure that the payment released are accounted for.  

The e-SOA has security features to ensure that it only falls to the right hands and protects authorized recipients from fraudsters.

It has no clickable links to thwart phishing attempts; it asks for a one-time password (OTP) to ensure that it can only be accessed by the rightful persons; and has a limited access period for e-SOA to prevent unauthorized use.

Metrobank also has Metrobank Business Online Solutions (MBOS), an online platform that allows business owners or their finance managers to process payments, collections and do basic banking transactions at any time of the day.

With this tool, business owners can also monitor the financial transactions initiated and approved by their employees.

These solutions do not only aid in efficiently managing their cashflow, but also ensure quick identification of any suspicious activity.

2. Employ tools to protect your systems against fraud

Metrobank emphasizes the importance of using security tools to fortify your business transactions. It can be as simple as placing firewalls and anti-virus software in your systems to protect your company data or as sophisticated as employing fraud management tools that use advanced algorithms and machine learning to detect fraudulent activities and suspicious patterns.

And when conducting your financial transactions, it is important to use legitimate and credible platforms or avail of the products and services of banks like Metrobank that has industry-standard anti-fraud measures in place.

MBOS, in particular, utilizes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a security protocol that provides privacy, authentication, and integrity to Internet communications. Two-factor authentication is also employed to ensure an extra layer of protection.

3. Build a team you trust

Trust is the most important thing to establish with the people helping you run your business—your employees. Some of the biggest fraud schemes involve employees because they know the ins and outs of your operations.

4. Restrict access to sensitive information

While you have a trusted team, it’s important to only allow limited employees to access sensitive information on your business—this includes the account details and password on your company’s bank account or even tools similar to the Metrobank e-SOA.

Managing your business’ cashflow is not a task that you should delegate to just anyone. Corporate banking platforms usually have multiple roles available to designate appropriately to your employees—such as a maker, a verifier and an authorizer.

In this way, you are able to control their access to the information available based on their role. This also allows for checks and balances in your process.

5. Educate your employees on fraud awareness

At the end of the day, on top of all the anti-fraud management tools to safeguard your business’ money, Metrobank stresses the importance of fraud awareness among your employees especially if they’re involved in important financial transactions for your company.

Business owners and their employees should stay vigilant for potential fraudulent activities within their environment. To #FightFraud, Metrobank reminds them to:

• Stop: Refrain from clicking unverified links or downloading suspicious attachments.
   
• Check: Verify the identity and legitimacy of senders or callers before responding.
   
• Think: Never share personal or corporate bank details with anyone.

You can strengthen your business’ defenses against fraud by having comprehensive company policies, proactive prevention by means of fraud awareness or education among your employees, vigilant detection with the help of anti-fraud management tools, and by equipping your business with tools provided by your trusted bank to constantly monitor your cashflow.

Editor’s Note: This #BrandSpace story is created with Metrobank. It is produced by the Advertising Content Team that is independent from our Editorial Newsroom.