Scam Alerts: Keeping Your Customers Informed

Cybercrime and digital fraud are one of the biggest threats to eCommerce, online banking, and other facets of our digital lives.

Scammers target people’s online accounts, credit card details, and personal information through phishing attempts and fraudulent account access.

To keep customers secure, companies are utilizing increased cybersecurity measures like two-factor authentication and scam alerts.

But with the number of fraud cases growing, it’s harder to contact and engage with customers about fraud-related activity through traditional channels.

Amid overwhelmed call-center volumes, SMS alerts are a convenient and efficient way for businesses to quickly communicate with their customers.

We’ll see how they work and how they effectively prevent fraud and protect customer information.

What Are Scam Alerts? 

These are messages sent to notify the recipient of a potential breach of their account or warn them of fraud and scams that they may be exposed to.

Scam warnings come in different forms—SMS, chat messages, emails, or automated phone calls, but they all serve to protect the recipient against common targeted fraud attempts.

Alerts are one of the most effective ways of combating potential fraud before it happens.

Types of Scam Warnings 

Account Login 

If a user logs into their account from an unusual location or an unrecognized device, they may receive an alert informing them that their login information may have been compromised.

This type of alert protects users from unauthorized account access before it can do damage.

Credit or Debit Card Purchases

When irregular purchase patterns are noticed such as a purchase made outside a cardholder’s regular location or at an unusual time, a credit card company or bank will alert fraud and ask the customer to verify the purchase.

Mass Alerts

With texting messaging, businesses can warn all their customers at once of scams that are targeting them or to be careful of fraudulent pages or contacts trying to impersonate them.

These types of alerts can notify people of scams to watch out for even before they’ve been targeted.

What Are the Benefits of Sending Alerts for Scam?

Sending timely alerts protects not just your customers, but your business.

Stolen or compromised credentials are the most common cause of a data breach and can cost a business a lot of money and time in rectifying the situation.

With scam warnings, you can engage with your customers in real time, quickly address fraud inquiries, and resolve potential cases, especially in high volumes. 

Responsive 

SMS alerts immediately reach their recipient and have a much higher open and response rate than email.

Cost-Effective 

Chat messages are a much cheaper channel of communication with your customers than a phone call, especially internationally, and much more effective than email.

Secure 

Most SMS providers, like Dexatel, offer robust security features such as multi-factor authentication, sender ID verification, and encryption, ensuring that sensitive commercial and customer data remain protected.

How Are Alerts Sent via Chat?

One of the most impactful ways to warn customers of scams is via chat.

People are used to social media interactions and mobile chat applications like WhatsApp and Viber are now great platforms for engaging with customers on the go. 

To do so, businesses can register on platforms like Dexatel.

By using Viber or WhatsApp, businesses can start messaging their customers and better alert them against fraud automatically.

This can result in a much quicker reaction time and prevent fraudulent activity.

While chat platforms can be used to warn customers of different types of scams going on, users have to be careful, as chats are also often used by scammers.

Recipients should always verify that the message is coming from a legitimate business account and not spoofed.

How to Set Up Alerts for Scam

To set up alerts, businesses can connect to Dexatel’s SMS API and automate their messaging.

You can integrate different platforms, applications, and systems so that when a potential scam is detected an alert is automatically sent.