Identity theft is a serious crime that has challenged legal systems worldwide. Contrary to popular belief, it can take place in many ways besides web-based and electronic transactions. There have been a number of instances of identity theft resulting from stolen credit cards, business documents, and checkbooks.
A recent study confirms that only about 11.6 percent of identity theft crimes take place via the Internet. A large number of identity theft crimes have been committed with the help of stolen documents from offices. If you own a business, it is important to ensure that adequate measures are in place to safeguard the sensitive information of your company and your clients.
Listed below are the top ten reasons why you should make sure that your business is identity theft-proof:
- For The Security Of Your Business, without proper security measures, your company name (and credit) can be used to purchase merchandise from other companies.
- In The Larger Interest Of The Public – If you have a good reputation in the consumer market, identity thieves may want to use your name to dupe innocent customers. They may lure them to place an order for merchandise and then run away with the money.
- To Safeguard Your Reputation—It takes years to build a good reputation, and you cannot afford to ruin it by allowing someone else to use your name to cheat people.
- Avoiding Negative Publicity—If you are a successful business owner whose company name has been used by identity thieves to cheat innocent customers, your company automatically attracts a lot of negative publicity, whether it is your fault or not. As a result, people will probably be apprehensive about purchasing products or services from your company again.
- To Protect Client Privacy – There have been several instances of companies losing sensitive information about their clients to hackers and identity thieves, leading to heavy losses. Some documents that may contain important personal data include insurance documents, business details and tax records. The information obtained can be used to create fraudulent identification documents.
- To Safeguard The Privacy Of Employees – The main interest of an identity thief lies in documents and sources that may reveal important personal data. These include names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, phone numbers, insurance information and banking details. Employee files in your company include all this information. Access to these files, leads to serious implications and puts the financial future of your employees at risk.
- To Comply With The Law – New legislation requires business owners to destroy important documents that may no longer be required by the organization, but may contain sensitive information. Document shredding is common in most organizations.
- To Avoid Litigation – If you are forced to sue a fraudulent company for identity theft, you stand to lose a great deal of time and money – both of which are usually in short supply.
- To Avoid Being Trapped In Legal Implications – If someone has illegally used your company name to dupe a customer, there is a possibility that the victim may sue you for the losses. Such legal implications could harm your hard-earned business reputation.
- To Strengthen Rapport With Customers And Build Trust – Customers are always eager to be associated with a brand or company that has a good reputation. If you protect the interests of your customers, you are sure to win their loyalty.
