Phishing

Billions of dollars are swindled every year through credit card crimes. Many different people have fallen victim to elaborate scams. It is prudent to exercise caution with regards to using your credit card online and take credit card fraud prevention measures.

The following guidelines are some common sense measures to take to prevent credit card fraud.

(i) Never use your credit card carelessly or place it in the possession of someone else. Do not leave it lying around the house or a work environment. Always destroy old cards immediately after being issued a new one. Cutting the card up is one way to render it unusable and is a prudent credit card fraud protection measure.

(ii) You should be careful to not give your credit card number to any telemarketer unless they are from a reputable company or unless you called the company yourself. Some fraud is conducted by disguise of a sale in order to acquire the credit card number. (ii) Always check your credit card transaction statements. Keep track of receipts for reconciliation purposes. Unauthorized activity can be reported to the relevant authorities and you can cancel the card. The bank will have standard procedures to deal with these situations.

(iv) Never activate links in emails that require you to update account or supply credit card details. You can be subject to phishing attacks whereby you are directed to third party websites that capture your details for the purpose of exploiting unauthorized transactions.

(v) Always check that sites you purchase from are safe and secure. Reputable companies display the 'hacker safe' logo and use secure transaction processing. Do not send credit card details by email. You may also be prompted for the three or four digit entry code on the back of the card. This is a prudent internet credit card fraud prevention measure.

(vi) Do not leave banking account details, credit card details or password details in unsecured files on your personal computer. If you intend to keep these in digital format, purchase a password protection program for storage purposes.

(vii) Always have a firewall, virus program and spyware program installed and updated. Perform regular scanning and keep your system free of malicious programs.

(viii) Stay away from bad internet neighborhoods such as porn sites and hacker sites. You can pick up unnecessary tracking files or malicious code without being aware.

If you exercise caution and discretion and follow the above guidelines you will have taken the online credit card fraud prevention measures.

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