CreditCards.com.au - Australian Credit Cards Online

27 July 2009

The world of finance and credit cards is becoming increasingly complex with new security measures needed to protect oneself from fraud, scams and outright personal identity theft. The level of credit cards scams and fraudulent activity has resulted in the creation of new programs for those wishing to actively protect themselves and their credit cards.

There are simple everyday steps that every credit card holder can do to protect themselves from falling victim to credit cards scams in addition to full systems created for even better protection. These programs, namely My Veda Alert and Secure Sentinel, offer a range of monitoring and control services that keep the card holder informed of all activities that take place on the card and allow people to take their own measures to protect their financial identity.

Checklist of things to do to prevent credit card fraud

1. Don't let your card out of your sight. Portable skimming machines can steal your card details with a simple swipe.
2. Examine every ATM machine for skimming attachments. The skimming attachments are designed to blend with the rest of the machine so become familiar with ATM's you regularly use.
3. Don't give personal or card details to persons that initiate a call to you saying they are from a trusted source like your bank - tell them you will call them back and don't call them back on a number they give you.
4. Keep your mail box secure - thieves can target your mail to get new pin numbers or cards sent from your bank.
5. Destroy any pin numbers received in the mail before putting in the rubbish.
6. Always check your statements for any suspicious transactions.
7. Inform your credit card provider immediately if your card is stolen, lost or if you notice any peculiar happenings or unknown transactions on your account.
8. Sign your card immediately upon receiving it and keep your PIN secure.
9. Don't make your PIN something that can be guessed - eg: your date of birth
10. Check your credit file on a regular basis to see if there are any credit checks that you didn't initiate - ie: fraudsters making loan applications in your name.
11. Ensure you have up to date protection on your computer to prevent malicious programs like key loggers - programs that record everything typed into your computer and then send this information via the web to the thief.
12. Make your passwords more secure. Generally the longer your password the more difficult it is to hack. Password hacking programs use enormous lists of real words to try to find passwords. To make it harder to crack your password, experts recommend not using real words. They say you should use if possible; upper and lower case letters, numbers and make it as long as possible.

For more information on credit card fraud and other scams, view the full article Protecting Yourself against Financial Scams

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