Credit Card Fraud And What To Look Out For
Credit card fraud is rife these days and no, its not all on the internet as many of us think it is. Very often it occurs in a store or a restaurant, even though we may think this not to be possible. Lets look at the facts. I personally have used my credit card many, many more times on the internet than in shops in the high street or in restaurants. On the internet I have had no problems ever. I have been defrauded when using my card at a gas station, however. So this goes to show that its certainly not the case that all fraud is on the internet. I trust the internet more, actually. Its not difficult for someone who works in a restaurant as a casual waiter or waitress to attain your card details by what is known as “skimming”. What is skimming? This is where when you hand over you card to a store keeper or whomever and they take it to make payment for your goods or the services you have been given. However, instead of only swiping your card for the one transaction you made, they will swipe the card into a card reader which can then be taken off premises and the data downloaded to a computer or other storage device. To prevent this from happening on your account - or rather not to prevent, but to be aware - is to check up your statements very regularly. Not only to check them but go through them very carefully too. Thieves often make very small transactions to try to fool us into thinking nothing about them, so its sensible to query even small transactions on your statement. Due to the increase of credit card fraud over the past number of years, banks have in place higher security measures and also better compensation plans for those unfortunate enough to have experienced it. Here are a few things you can do to limit your risk: - keep very safe all credit card statements and shred anything that you do not wish to keep that has your details on. Do not put anything in the bucket without shredding it first - do not be taken in by phone calls asking you to verify credit card details over the phone as you may inadvertently be giving away all the information required to defraud you - do not simply lend out your card to anyone, other than those you can really trust - only carry the credit card or cards that you need and leave the rest in a safe place - if you use your card at a store, restaurant, shop or similar, do not leave the credit slip lying around or do not just simply put in the bucket - do check your statements on a regular basis to make sure there is no strange expenses on there - moving home? Make sure you let your credit card company know about it well in advance So there we are, some simple but very effective ways to lower any risks to our credit cards and ensure we do not suffer from credit card theft. Click the link for further details of low interest and 0% interest credit cards. Or if you need credit card help, you can find this too. |