Credit Card Fraud Prevention

In order to prevent becoming a victim of card theft, it does help to keep your cards safe and out of sight of prying eyes. This is good advice as a great deal of UK credit card fraud arises from gangs of thieves stealing cards using them for a little personal shopping before the card’s owner is aware that their card has been stolen.

Whilst card theft still a problem, fraudsters are now turning their attentions to more sophisticated fraud methods as card theft is a high visibility crime which carries a high risk of being caught.

One such sophisticated method is card “skimming”. Recently, this method of fraud has been on the increase and is worth more than £100m net, to UK credit card fraudsters.

“Skimming” is a process where the data contained on the magnetic strip of your card is electronically copied onto another card. This fraud tends to be carried out in restaurants, shops and filling stations, anyplace where your card is out of sight long enough for it to be copied.

Card not present fraud, carried out phone, via the internet etc, still accounts for a high proportion of card fraud, worth up to £150.8m a year.

How can I prevent myself becoming a victim?

Simply becoming more vigilant and applying common sense can in itself prevent card fraud. There are many simple steps one can take to reduce the risk further such as never letting your card out of sight and checking card and bank statements thoroughly. Purchasing a small inexpensive shredder to shred statements and receipts is also prudent as a fraudster can gain enough information from receipts reproduce a replica card.

Pin numbers and passwords can also put you at risk. It is best to avoid using traceable facts about yourself for either Pin numbers or passwords such as your date of birth or your mother’s maiden name. It is also useful to use different Pin numbers for different cards as this makes the fraudsters job much more difficult thus providing yourself with greater security.

What about cash machine crime?

The usual commonsense advice applies here. For instance, do not use a machine you suspect has been tampered with. When entering your Pin number cover the hand you are using in order to prevent anyone seeing your number. Common cash machine fraud includes the use of miniature cameras to record your Pin and fraudsters loitering around cash machines in a bid to spy on users and obtain their Pin numbers.

UK credit card issuers and banks believe they are making significant progress on the war against fraudsters. The industry hopes that with the introduction of Chip and Pin and other anti-fraud measures, that we will soon see a significant reduction UK card fraud.