Overview

Fraudsters continue to get more and more savvey - and independant liquor stores are one of their favorite targets. Cloud Retailer helps you protect yourself and fight back.

It gives your cashiers tools to do the right thing

One of our 8 store clients was being targeted by a gang of fraudsters.  They would roam from one store to another and employ the same tricks.  One key trick in their bag: intimidate the cashier to get them to NOT follow proper proceedure.

When this first started happening, the liquor chain employed a new rule: If a transaction feels suspicious, use Cloud Retailer to scan their drivers license.  This would capture their identity and likely scare off the fraudster.  On paper, this was a great plan.

Another fraud event happened in the next week!  

The transaction fell in the specific parameters they called out - someone buying 3 bottles of Casamigos and the entire stock (2 bottles) of Johnny Walker Blue (ouch!).  This is exactly what they trained their cashiers to watch out for.

When the retailer revisted the situation after another fraud event occured, the cashier didn't scan the ID.  They spoke to the person - a tenured and good employee, she admitted that she knew better.  When she asked the customer for an ID to scan they got loud and argumentative.  "I'm clearly old enough, is this because of my race?!?".  She got scared and backed off.

What to do now?

When our liquor store clients have problems - we find solutions.

We created a new button in Cloud Retailer so that when this situation occurs, the cashier presses it and it shows a notification on the payment window that reads "Transaction CANNOT proceed without a valid ID".  This took the pressure off the cashiers and allowed them to blame the technology.  The problem was solved.

It forces employees to follow procedure

In the above example, cashier discretion may be required.  In other cases, we can configure the system to force a strict policy.  Two great examples:

1)  Manual entry of credit card numbers

Another liquor store client of ours does a lot of deliveries.  In these cases, they wanted the ability to manually key in a credit card number into the payment terminal.  Here again, fraustsers SEACH for people who allow this feature on their payment terminals.  This person was targeted.

Once again - Cloud Retailer finds solutions for our clients.  We updated the system so that manual entry required a manager's approval.  Problem solved.

2)  Swipe fallback - DISABLED!

Fraudsters SEACH for weaknesses - so they can abuse you and your technology.  Another "trick" we saw people use is that they purposely remove their credit card from the chip reader early.  The standard for payment processing is that if the chip reader errors 3 times, it falls back to allow for using the old school magnetic stripe.  The problem with this is that when the old magnetic strip is used, you lose ALL chargeback protection.

With Cloud Retailer - we deploy a custom configuration that is specific to what we see in liquor store operations.  We disable this feature to protect you. 

Buy a payment terminal from a generic processor??  You don't get this functionality.

3)  Cloud Retailer flags suspicious transactions and automatically REQUIRES a drivers license to be scanned.

Transaction over $250?  It forces a cashier to scan an ID.  Transaction contains products that are fraudsters' favorites?  Forced to scan an ID.  And of course - a manager has the ability to override.

The payment processing system is watching your back

Not only is the POS system helping you avoid fraud, but so are the payment systems we recoment (Straight Up Pay).

1)  Cashiers cannot do a return to a credit card that was not the card originally used.

Again, a common fraud tactic is to play musical chairs with credit cards.  They dispute the transaction on the original card and keep your money.  Cloud Retailer stops this.

2)  Reconciliation tools that notify you about problems fast.

Not only do the credit card reconciliation tools in Cloud Retailer make verifying that the credit cards you took went into your bank account a breeze.  They also ensure you are notified of problems as early as possible.  The sooner you are aware of a problem and take action, the more like it is that you get the money you are owed.