Protect Your Customers for Secure Your ID Day

In honor of Secure Your Id Day, businesses as well as consumers are encouraged to take the necessary steps into protecting customers’ personal information.

Did you know that protecting your customers’ identity is largely in your hands? In fact, several lawsuits have been filed over the years against local businesses who were in violation of FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 that was set in place to improve the accuracy of consumers’ credit-related records. Businesses that fail to truncate a customer’s credit card number or other personal information on a receipt are in violation of this law and could be subject to a lawsuit for possible risk of identity theft.

BBB is here to help your business protect your customer’s personal information on Secure Your Id Day with these three suggestions:

Train your employees. It is important to add this to your business’s training process. Notify all your employees of the FACTA and what your business is required to do. According to the Federal Trade Commission, businesses can include no more than the last five digits of a customer’s card number on receipts, and the expiration date must be deleted. An example of an acceptable receipt looks like this:

ACCT: ***********12345
EXP: ****

Check your POS system. If your business gets a new POS system, make sure it is compliant from day one. Customers are put at high risk for identity theft if a business fails to to truncate a credit card number or other personal information on a receipt.

If you don’t need it - shred it. Avoid storing documents that contain personal information you no longer need including: credit card applications, insurance forms, financial statements, health forms, and other billing statements. Shred all unnecessary documents that contain personal information; garbage cans are goldmines for identity thieves.

For more information on the FACTA and how it affects your business, click here for the full description from the Federal Trade Commission.

For more information on Secure Your Id Day, visit: http://www.bbb.org/council/news-events/events/2015/01/secure-your-id-day/.