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How not be made a victim by a CSR or someone with malicious, Know Your Company (KYCo)
Did you know that companies who handle money and other sensitive data personal information? Thus, anything from date of birth, Social Security Number , physical address may be available to employee? It’s called Know Your Customer (KYC) and it’s used to build online or physical profiles of customers or any individual who receives or handles money.
How does KYC affect you as a customer, even if you don’t handle or receive money? Simple, if you don’t have to handle money, or report taxes, you should NOT have to provide your personal data to companies. Therefore, as customers, it’s our responsability to Know Your Company (KYCo). By doing this we can safeguard our personal information from fraudsters, of those who enable them.
Who exactly does customer service? For more info, read our knowledgebase on who are the people behind your customer service experience.
Often times the age and location of a CSR can impact their ability to professionally handle your personal data. However, the main determining factor can be a company’s commitment to protect sensitive customer data. Other times, if we take out our frustrations on a CSR, they can if they are unsupervised take action to save your personal information for retaliation.
CSR come from all-walks of life, and for this reason as customers we must be diligent to protect ourselves from CSRs who may have malicious intent for their customers; thus, what can you do as a customer that can make a CSR go out of their way to harm you? Follow these steps to determine if a company can be trusted with your personal information.
Start with researching about a company’s commitment to privacy.
Check job postings to see if a company requires their employees to handle sensitive data.
If a company is committed to protecting data, do they have any industry or government recognition or certification for protecting personal data.
- What is their public track record for dealing with handling private data?
- If you Google a company’s name do, they appear in the news section with positive or negative reviews about their performance handling personal data?
- When you contact a company, what are the risks of your information being leaked?
If you use chat or email to connect with a company, your IP and location can be tracked – beware of the ramifications of CSRs or individuals who can use your personal data without authorization.
Reality Check:
What’s the real track record of the company that you’re doing business? The reality is that if the company is not a bank or a financial institution, there’s a possibility they will not be security or privacy minded. Therefore, you a decision to make if you wish to do business with a company that may at the very least have an internal leak that grants access to your personal information to individuals who can cause you physical or financial harm. Here’s simple example of a CSR getting in trouble for fraud, it’s very real.
What can you do to protect yourself from CSRs or individuals who have malicious intent?
- For your online protection, be sure to use a VPN service to guard your actual location.
Go deep – find out if your company’s data has been leaked. Even if you don’t find a new media article, it’s still possible that a company may still have their security and personal compromised.
Free Resource: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
This website not only will help you determine if the company you’re in the process of doing business, you can find other companies who in the past you have given your personal information. Do not be victim and decide if you will do business with a company that may have security issues.
When you call a company, block your number if you won’t be talking to a financial institution you know and trust.
Use our free knowledgebase to enhance your customer experience