Credit Card Fraud Guide

Where there’s money, there’s a possibility of credit card fraud and theft. So the possibility of fraud with plastic money, or credit cards, cannot be ruled out either.

In fact fraud protection is even more essential with credit cards. So how do you protect your credit card against fraud? Quite simply, two things: first is taking adequate precautions to prevent fraud from happening on your credit card and the second thing is to take immediate action once you detect or suspect that a fraud has been committed or can be committed.

Here’s a list of precautions:

1. Never lose sight of your credit card

Be it at a theatre ticket desk or a shop or a restaurant you should never lose sight of your credit card. This is even more essential if the merchant/ place is not known to you; more so if you are a tourist at that location.

The fraud at these places can range from easy things like more than one swipes of the card to use of sophisticated card duplication devices for making a duplicate credit card from your credit card.

2. Do not share your credit card with friends or others

Credit cards are issued by the credit card company to you and they provide you with the provision of supplementary cards for family members etc too, if your require them.

So there is no need to share your credit card in the first place. It’s not a question of trust but also legality and other person’s awareness about credit cards.

So a minor or a friend might not take appropriate precautions with the credit card and end up revealing security information to fraudsters or they might use the credit card in a wrong way thus landing you into trouble.

So never share your credit card with others. If a friend (or your family) needs your help in making a purchase using your credit card, then instead of handing over the card to them you could make the purchase for them by yourself.

3. Sign your credit card

Every credit card has a small white space on their back side where you are required to ink your signature. All the credit card suppliers include this as an important instruction at the time of credit card delivery. This signature helps in checking the identity of the credit card holder and is used by most shops as an important verification mechanism.

So in the event of you losing the card, this signature at the back of your credit card can act as a protective mechanism to prevent fraudulent use of your credit card.

So let go of that laziness and sign your credit card as soon as you receive it. A lot of credit card suppliers are also offering photo credit cards nowadays i.e. credit card with your photo on it.

This is an even stronger identity verification mechanism and you should surely go for such an option if it is available.

4. Protect your credit card details

Never reveal your credit card details to strangers over internet. Internet is full of fraudsters and you can’t really trust a stranger. Destroy any communications/mails/posts that contain details of your credit card.

Credit card fraudsters have embarked upon this methodology where-in they sift through the garbage to look for letters/mails etc containing credit card details. Subsequently, they use these details to their benefit and your loss.

As they say “Prevention is better than cure”, so why not take precautions. Another important thing to mention here is the impostors.

These are people who pose as credit card supplier representative and try to retrieve credit card details from you. They use emails and telephones to carry out their operation.

Knowing a simple fact will help you here. The fact is that credit card suppliers will never ask for you critical details like you PIN number or password.

They in fact mention it as a clear instruction to not to reveal critical security information, like PIN, to even their own representatives.

5. Keep your details up-to-date

Keep the credit card supplier informed about any changes in your personal details especially, change of address and change of name.

Change of address should be communicated even a bit before you make the actual move. This will avoid credit card fraud by preventing your credit card communications from falling into wrong hands.

Any incorrect transactions should also be advised to the credit card supplier immediately. Just in case you loose your credit card, immediately inform your credit card supplier so that they can block the credit card.

So, it’s not that difficult to protect your credit card, you just need to be a bit careful and take a few precautions.