Fraud costs increasing on credit cards
3 June 2008
Credit cards can be quite susceptible to fraud and the Australian Payments Clearing Association has found that credit card fraud increased from $85 million in 2006 to $111.5 million in 2007. Most of this fraud is attributable to online, phone and mail transaction fraud, also known as card not present fraud. Fraud on skimmed credit cards, where the surface of a credit card's magnetic strip is skimmed to provide fraudsters with information for a dummy credit card, also increased within Australia.
While consumers will not be penalised for unauthorised transactions that they are genuinely not responsible for, the inconvenience and stress brought about by identity theft means that it is prudent to take precautions when using credit cards. For transactions using your physical card, be sure to keep your credit cards in sight at all times to avoid skimming. For online transactions, take care to use only systems which you know are secure and to keep a lookout for possible phishing attempts, where a fake website poses as a legitimate one to try and steal your information.
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