With an increasing number of people without jobs and struggling to make ends meet, the rate of credit card fraud is on the rise. Here are some tips for preventing credit fraud:
- Open your account statements as soon as they arrive and look closely at the transactions. Match all of your receipts against the statement to make sure there are no unauthorized purchases on the account and report any that you don’t recognize immediately.
- Shred receipts and account statements before discarding because some may contain your credit card number.
- Never give out your credit card number to people calling to ask for it by phone, you don’t know if they are really who they say they are. If you need to make a payment by phone with a credit card or bank account, call the company yourself so you know you are dealing with the right people.
- Obtain a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus at least once per year to ensure it is accurate.
- Keep a firesafe, locked box to hold personal documents such as social security cards, birth certificates and bank records.
- Report a lost or stolen credit card immediately so that it can be canceled.
- If your expiration date is getting close on debit and credit cards, contact the card issuer if you haven’t received a card replacement - it’s possible it was taken from your mailbox by a thief.
- Don’t use obvious passwords for online banking accounts.
- Don’t leave your receipt at the ATM or gasoline pump.
- Don’t put your credit card payments in your home mailbox to be picked up - take it to the post office instead.
- Look for the “https” before the URL of websites you want to buy from to ensure they are encrypted and secure before making a purchase online.
No comments:
Post a Comment