As technology moves forward, it becomes applied to payment processing services. No longer do we simply pay with cash or checks; inn this day ad age, most people rely upon credit and debit cards. Many of us also pay for things online — or even over the phone. Being able to pay remotely or simply without cash in general makes life much more convenient for most of us. But it also puts customers and sellers alike at risk of being defrauded. Fraud is a major issue in the world of payment processing. Criminals have been known to steal payment information, and therefore pay fraudulently — defrauding both the person whose payment information was stolen and the seller. Of course, sellers can also be wrongly accused of defrauding customers. With card not present payment methods, scams are a constant risk. Yet we should and must be able to use these payment systems. Luckily, there are new gateway systems that can protect both customers and sellers, ensuring that everyone gets what they want and that payment is secure. But before we get into these new gateways, we need to understand how card not present payment processing works. Let’s look into why secure payments are so important — and how big of an issue fraud really is.

Payment Fraud Today: Understanding The Need For Secure Payment

How much of an issue is fraud, really? Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean that it can’t happen at all. 2014 alone saw $16.31 billion in losses resulting from payment card fraud — and it doesn’t show any sign of letting up. It’s believed that 2020 will see a projected number of fraud losses around $35.45 billion. Card fraud can happen in a number of ways. For one thing, consumers often use cash machines — also known as ATM machines — that aren’t reliable. You should try to use cash machines that are linked to your bank for a number of reasons. But sometimes, people want or need cash quickly, and turn to the first machine they find. These machines can be linked with cameras or devices that steal your card information. If card information is stored online in, say, credit card accounts, it can be remarkably easy for hackers to steal that information. And the fact is that you’ve probably stored your card information online more often than you’d think.

Ecommerce: Why We Need New Gateways For Secure Payment

Ecommerce is something that we can no longer avoid — we need to be able to buy things online. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get the goods that we really want and sometimes even need. Yet at the same time, in 12% of credit and debit card fraud cases, the Internet was the initial point of contact. Now, some people are still defrauded simply by naively entering their information into scam websites. But much of the time, our information is stored in websites that seem safe. While you don’t have to keep your card information in most accounts, we do it so that we can pay faster, not thinking about the security risks. On average, an American shopper usually spends about $78 online. One of the reason why we do this is that we want to get the gifts with purchase often offered online. Without secure payment gateways, however, we always leave ourselves at risk. No matter how secure and “major” the site, it can always be hacked, and your information can always be stolen.

Securing Your Payments: The Many Solutions

The most important thing to do when securing your payment information is to use secure payment processing gateways. Once you’ve done this, however, there are other, smaller ways of keeping your information secure. As previously mentioned, don’t use any ATM machines you aren’t familiar with. Don’t store your card information anywhere online. For that matter, don’t use your card at stores that you don’t completely trust, either. You can never be too careful.