Hands up if you know what credit card phishing, pharming and skimming is? Do you know how this can effect you and leave you out of pocket? What do you do if you’re a victim of debit or credit card fraud? Who do you speak to? What are your rights? Here, the ShopCompare Shopaholics team take a closer look at practical credit card fraud prevention tips. Firstly, let’s throw some stats at you. Card fraud is said to cost the UK up to £1.2 million PER day. We find that a staggering statistic and one that underlines the ongoing fight against card fraud is very much still in its infancy. Many people don’t know how to spot if they’ve been a victim of card fraud. Do you know what to look out for to ensure your credit card details aren’t being stolen?
Chip-and-pin technology has helped to reduce card fraud but unfortunately the problem remains. There are different types of card fraud;
Card-not-present (CNP) fraud
CNP fraud is the largest kind of card fraud in the UK. CNP fraud occurs because neither the debit or credit card nor the cardholder is present when the transaction takes place. CNP fraud typically occurs over the internet, by telephone, fax and even mail order when criminals obtain debit and credit card details and use them to make one, or in some cases, hundreds of fraudulent transactions.
Card skimming
Card skimming has been much publicised in recent years via consumer shopping shows on TV. This is where criminals will attach card readers and small cameras to cash machines to capture your card details. The small camera films you keying in your pin.
Another method of skimming is when your card is put through a device which electronically copies the data from your card’s magnetic stripe, without your knowledge of course. Restaurants, bars and petrol stations are often found guilty of this due to corrupt employees. Where possible, you should always insist your credit card is kept in full view when making a transaction. Unfortunately with you’ll often be unaware until your next bank statement arrives and you spot several debit or credit card purchases that you have no recollection of making.
Phishing
Chances are you’ve received emails that appear to come from a bank asking you to enter your password or confirm your account details. What happens is that you are then taken to a fake version of your bank’s website. The number of these ‘phishing’ emails has increased over the last few years despite spam and junk email filters blocking a large number of phishing emails.
Pharming
Pharming uses a computer virus that redirects you to a fake website when you attempt to access your online bank account. For example, you may have your online banking address in your bookmarks. If you have a pharming virus on your PC this may attempt to redirect you to a spook version of your bank’s website and will collect your personal details as you innocently attempt to login to your online bank account.
If you’re a victim of debit or credit card fraud
The first step is to call your card issuer and cancel your cards. Unless you’ve been involved in the fraud, let’s assume the answer to that is most certainly not!, or have been negligent (for example writing down your pin and leaving this next to your card) then the most you can be liable for fraud on both debit and credit cards is £50.
Further Info
You can obtain more information on card fraud prevention by visiting Card Watch which is run by the credit card industry body Apacs.
