Scams and security!

Not the usual type of salon news…

Everyone knows that any person, organisation or business, big or small, is at risk of hacking or clever scams.

The mighty Marks & Spencer’s was targeted recently and lost millions until the problem was sorted out.

It seems that, however much we strive to be vigilant and inquisitive, we are still at risk.

Things don’t always go according to plan, and to raise awareness for others, we wanted to share a recent experience in the salon.

A generous friend

A potential customer came in for a consultation about a hair colouring service.

This is not an unusual event, as you can imagine!

After an in-depth conversation and a 48-hour patch test, the customer booked an appointment for a few days later.

The very same day, a woman called asking if she could pay for this particular client’s service, as a gift for her birthday.

We have taken payments over the phone before with no issues, so after passing all the security checks, including entering the house number and postcode, we saw no reason not to go ahead with the payment.

The transaction was authorised by the bank, and that was that – or so we thought…

The client came in the following day for her appointment and left very happy.

The bill was £258.00, and although we did question a friend’s generosity for paying that amount, because it was authorised, we assumed it was ok.

Payment refused

Last week, we received a letter from the bank telling us that the payment hadn’t gone through, and the cardholder was denying making it in the first place.

Apparently, this happens a lot, and in future we were advised to only take payments in person or as a bank transfer.

Lesson learnt – authorisation of a payment is no guarantee.

We want to make people aware of this – £258 is a lot of money to lose for a small business, and in some cases could be the difference between sink or swim for some.

We tried to contact the client, and her number was fake – the name she booked under was probably false, too.

We can only try to be aware and take sensible measures to stay ahead, and this sometimes means making changes.

We are sorry, unfortunately, we can no longer accept card payments over the phone.