The Payment Source Blog

We live in an age where mobile phones are a major part of our daily lives. The versatility mobile phones bring to our everyday life makes them almost indispensable. Each day, mobile phones are used for everything from communicating with friends and family, entertainment, business, and paying bills. Almost everyone has a mobile phone these days, in fact, last year there were an estimated 31.38 million smartphone users in Canada (see source). This number grows each year and those that already have a mobile phone switch carriers more often than you might think. Growth and subscriber changes offer a regular stream of revenue for businesses, especially in the prepaid mobile space. Hence, why it is very important for small business owners to capitalize on this industry and offer a wide variety of wireless products and services to their customers.

Summer is coming to an end and back to school is upon us, with many heading off to college or university. For many students and parents, back to school is a very busy time of year, which makes it a busy time of year for retailers. Heading to campus dorms requires many essentials beyond those standard pens, books, and new clothes. Being away from home means being self-sufficient and having access to funds to help support expenses like daily meals, textbooks, and emergency money, as well as keeping their prepaid mobile phones topped up. 

The prepaid space is rapidly growing in Canada (see source) and as technology advances so do the different products and services the market has to offer. As a leading provider in this space, Now Prepay has always prided itself on its first to market approach, consistently providing the most innovative prepaid products and services to retailers across Canada.

There are many things you need to consider as a C-store owner or operator to ensure the business runs smoothly, from your product mix offering to ensuring your inventory is fully stocked. However, one important thing that is often overlooked, is educating and protecting yourself and your employees on current scams. It may seem like it's easy to detect fraud but fraudsters are persistent and clever and are constantly evolving their techniques. In fact, 34% of Canadians have fallen victim to fraud last year, with many stating that it's hard to detect fraud as these fraudsters are very convincing in imitating legitimate companies (see source).

C-store owners work very hard to grow their business, so when they are hit with fraud, there are various impacts. It's not only the financial losses, but it also adds a lot of unneeded stress and uncertainty. That is why it is imperative to educate yourself and your employees on ways to protect yourself and your business. Below is a list of three common scams and the steps you need to take to insure your business is protected from fraud:

1. Telephone Scams: a scam that occurs when a fraudster calls your store and impersonates a legitimate company that you work with such as a supplier. They will appear as if they know you and your business, and will usually call you at busy times to make you feel rushed. They will ask you for sensitive information pertaining to your business.

   How to protect yourself: Hang up! Once you are no longer busy, find the number to the company from a legitimate source like a secured website, and call them to verify the earlier call.

This time of year is full of celebrations for the people that we hold close to us. It’s the season of celebrating moms, dads, and grads, however, this year, with the uncertainty of the pandemic and a varying degree of provincial closures, things will look different. On many occasions, people have been choosing to celebrate from a distance through virtual video chats, and even doing a drive-by and showering their loved ones with gifts. However, through all this uncertainty, one thing remains the same, the convenience and flexibility of a gift card is the perfect solution in uncertain times.