How to Protect Yourself

In the Credit Card Fraud. Part 1 – When, Where and How It Is Done to You we gave a brief review of different kinds of frauds involving credit cards. It this part we will concentrate on the ways to avoid credit card scams.

Here are some tips about how to protect yourself from credit card fraud:

• do not memorize your pin on your mobile (especially under an unobtrusive entrance as PIN or Bank) or carry it written on a piece of paper in your wallet – if you are mugged then the criminals have all they need in one place to help themselves to your money.

• cover your pin with your hand when you enter it and if there is some problem with an ATM, never ever accept help from kind passer-bys or people dressed in a bank uniform who miraculously appear at the scene 1,5 minutes after or even before you reported the problem to the bank.

• use different pins for different credit cards and NO, it is definitely not a bright idea to use your birthday as a pin!

• do not leave a card receipt at the ATM, this is all the fraudster needs to reproduce your card!

• choose the ATMs inside the banks and remember that credit cards are not a good means of getting cash anyway because of the fees and interests attached.

• keep an eye on your credit card account to be able to quickly report any unusual transactions.

• don’t give over any information over the phone. The scammers are very convincing and even quote some information to you, like your billing address and their badge number. The best thing is to write it down and call the bank on the number at the back of the card. Anyway, for no reason on earth will the bank ask you to give your credit card digit code for any verification.

• fraudsters can get everything they need from the bank statements , gas bills and other financial documents that you throw away. Shred them!

• if you have to travel abroad and use your card in many bars, restaurants and retailers and withdraw from the ATMs you are not 100% sure about – use a prepaid credit card: even if the worst comes to the worst, it will limit your loss.

• for on-line shopping and booking use only established websites with a secure padlock logo in the address bar at the top of the page. Also, respectable sites will always have a postal address and not just a P.O. box indicated on the page! Make use of regularly updated anti-virus and anti-phishing software and sign up for Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code.

There is no full-proof guarantee that the credit card fraudsters will not come up with some new clever trick to deprive you of your money, but hey, at least it is not as humiliating as falling victim to some old-as-the-world trick!