Credit cards are a part of everyday life in the U.S. They make shopping and morning lattes a lot easier. But that convenience makes it easy for criminals to steal credit card numbers and other personal information. Fact is, nearly 20% of all cardholders have experienced credit card fraud more than once, according to Merchant Cost Consulting. Those losses add up to billions every year for consumers and businesses alike. Here are five things you can do to protect yourself from credit card fraud.
- Keep an Eye on Your Physical Card: Cards go missing all the time. Plus, those moments when someone takes your card to finalize a purchase is an opportunity for criminals to clone your card details. Once a person has your card number, expiration date, and three-digit security code, they can start making purchases. Avoid this issue by ensuring transactions happen where you can see them. And never read your card details aloud in public.
- Watch Your Accounts Closely: Log into online banking or your other credit card accounts daily and look for anything unusual. Even minor charges can be fraudulent. If you find anything, dispute the charges and freeze all future transactions until you can get a new card and card number.
- Check Your Credit Reports: Review your credit report as often as possible. Annual Credit Report allows you to download a copy of your report once a year from each of the reporting agencies at no cost. Look for new credit cards that you did not approve or open, sharp increases in credit usage, along with new loans. If you find any accounts on your report that you did not authorize, let the reporting agency know immediately and put a freeze on all new credit until you are ready.
- Read Emails and Text Messages Carefully: Phishing scams in emails and smishing scams in text messages catch people off guard all the time. These messages look like they were sent by legitimate credit card companies, but they are actually designed to trick you into clicking a link and sharing your login credentials, credit card numbers, or other vital information. To avoid phishing and smishing cons, avoid clicking links in emails and text messages. Instead, go to the site on your own and contact customer or member services about the issue or offer that appeared in the email or text.
- Be Picky About Online Retailers: Sometimes, offers and prices that seem too good to be true, really are too good to be true. Don’t trust anyone with a nice looking website. While you might get what you ordered, some online companies are simply there to steal your credit card details. Before you buy anything online, check that the site is secure. Does the URL begin with HTTP or HTTPS? If the “S” is missing, don’t make the purchase.