Credit card hints and tips - Article on credit card scams and banking scams.

Article November 2003 © Copyright Lots of Luck Advertising

As with most entrepreneurial scam artists, when new innovation, invention, and technology develop, the scam artists are prone to 'keep up'.  The scam artists are always adept at applying their skills in 'scammery' to dupe the unexpected.  Credit cards, debit cards, cash cards, pre-paid cards, and online banking are no exception to the fields of trade, where the scam artists apply their wiles.

There are some older established methods of scamming people regarding their personal information, credit cards, debit cards, cash cards, pre-paid cards, and banking information, including but not limited to the following:.

• When making a purchase using a credit card, debit card, cash card, or pre-paid card, the scam is that the cashier or clerk runs the card though a reader two times.  One time is through an unauthorized reader which collects information from the card, and a second time is through a valid transaction reader to complete the purchase transaction.  The order of scanning may vary.  Later, the scam artist will use the information from the unauthorized reader, to make unauthorized purchases onto the card.  (Follow a good practice of being vigilant by watching where your credit card is scanned by the cashier or clerk.  Question occurrences of reading your card through a reader more than once.)
  
  
• One reason that most credit cards receipts don't use carbon copy paper between copies any more, is that there was some abuse of the information contained on the carbon copy paper after it was used and thrown away.  There were people who gathered thrown away used credit card carbon papers, and then using the information on those carbon papers, made unauthorized purchases.  (Follow a good practice of asking for your carbon paper copies if the merchant still uses the carbon paper receipts, so that you can discard of them properly yourself, and not have them available in someone else's trash.)
  
  
• Telephone contact may not always be with who you think.  For example, a scam artist telephones and purportedly identifies themselves as a bank employee, a company employee, an auditor, or even a law enforcement agent.  They provide some purported reason that they require your personal information, credit card information, or banking information.  Often the reasons given are for an audit, to verify account status, to check the integrity of an employee, to win a prize, or something that may make you think that the call is credible, and so to try to convince you to tell them your personal, credit card, or banking information.  (Follow a good practice of verifying the caller's identity with the appropriate source.)
  
  
• Someone arriving at your door, may follow a similar scam as the phone scammer described above.  (Follow a good practice of verifying the person's identity with the appropriate source.)
  
  
• The latest scam methods include the Internet.  Be cautious of 'pop-up' or 'pop-under' windows that appear through your Web Browser, when they solicit some kind of information from you be it personal, credit card, debit card, cash card, prepaid card, or banking information related.  Some emails requesting information may seem to come from legitimate sources, but may not actually be from legitimate sources.  Some Internet Web sites may not be legitimate businesses, but rather may be scam sites collecting personal and credit related information for unauthorized purposes.

Be careful with your personal, credit, and banking information.  You don't want it to get into the hands of a scammer.  It is important to note, that even if you are wary of scams, it is still possible to fall victim to a scam.  If you believe you have been victimized by a scam, don't let pride stop you from reporting the circumstance to the authorities as soon as possible.

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