How to protect your credit card from scammers

Paying online with a credit card is exciting, convenient and it allows you to buy almost anything you want, if you have a good credit card rate.

The trick with online shopping is that you can deal with credit card fraud quite easily. There are lots of scammers out there and it’s quite easy to find scammers that want to steal credit cards New Zealand and your personal information.

As a result, you need to be careful and actively monitor your credit card activity. 

What are credit card scammers? 

Credit card scammers are people that create various methods and ideas designed specifically to steal your data as quickly as possible. They often try to entice you with a deal that’s too good to be true and they require you to share your credit card information.

The problem is that once you share your data, there’s not a lot you can do. All you need to do at this point is to avoid sharing your info with anyone else and replace the credit cards you own in New Zealand or block it as fast as possible.

How can credit card fraud happen?

The unfortunate thing is that credit card fraud is growing all the time. With more and more online shoppers, it’s very easy to find people that have malicious intentions and want to steal your money.

And that’s why credit card fraud can be so problematic most of the time. This brings in a major challenge and more and more people are losing their money as a result. 

Types of credit card fraud

The following are some of the ways that people could become victim to credit card fraud in New Zealand:

• Application fraud is where a fraudster attempts to get a credit card by using someone else’s name and private information. 
• Electronic fraud involves a fraudster obtaining a person’s credit card information through various sources such as through a telephone call, through an email or even through a webpage. They bait people by pretending to be an authorised individual from a bank for example or a power provider, from which they ask for your information to make some changes. 
• Counterfeit card fraud is where a card is ‘cloned’ from another credit card and used to purchase goods and services. 
• Lost and stolen credit card which is quite common. It is where someone finds or steals a credit card that is not theirs, and uses the information on the card to purchase goods and services with. 
• Account takeover is where a cardholder gives personal information to a fraudster unwittingly. The fraudster then gets in contact with the cardholder’s bank and reports a lost card to then obtain a new card in the name of the original cardholder. 

The problem is that you rarely get to know how and when any of these will appear.

It’s very important to understand how these types of people attack you and in what cases it’s okay to give them your private information.

The elderly and children are often the people that are most likely to fall for these scams as they often do not have as much experience with the internet. 

What can you do to prevent this from happening to you?

1. The first thing you want to do is to make sure that you buy only from reputable companies. At least that way you know transactions are secured and you are in no real danger.
2. If you see expedited shipping where the shipping addresses and billing addresses differ, then that can be a sign there are problems.
3. Check ATMs for a credit card skimmer. These are hard to spot, but ideally you want to use an ATM that has an anti-skimmer device.
4. Always make sure that you use strong passwords and you keep them safe. You never really know what you can expect from online shopping, so try to protect yourself at all costs.
5. Double check your billing statements every month. Pay attention and try to identify any possible costs that are not yours, as that will show someone messed with your accounts. And obviously that’s the best way to identify any possible scam attempt that might appear at times.
6. If your card was stolen, report to the bank right now. The last thing you want to do is wait, as scammers might be able to withdraw your cash right away.
7. Check website reviews and see if they are reliable. Ideally you want to use online payment processors and not your card directly, as this way you can get a refund and not put yourself at risk.
8. Avoid sharing credit card info unless you know for certain that you are giving it to a legitimate entity.  
9.   Keep your credit cards at home if you don’t plan on using them. The last thing is to show off your card, especially in public.

What should you do if an unauthorized person is using your credit card?

Banks like ANZ, Kiwibank, ASB are very good at dealing with credit card fraud. So the first thing you want to do when you encounter such a problem is to get in touch with them. They should be able to help very quickly and without much hassle. Here’s a few other things you can do: 

1. Contact the bank right away and freeze your credit card. You can then go to them in person and request a new credit card.
2. Talk with the online vendor. Sometimes extra charges appear from the vendor when it comes to shipping. And there are also vendors that offer subscription systems you pay every month. That’s why you need to pay attention to what you’re buying.
3. Dispute the charge with your credit card company or bank. If those charges appear, you want to make sure you dispute them as fast as possible.
4. You can also file a fraud or police report, in this situation we assume the problem is a major one and it can be very hard to solve on your own.
5. Monitor your account for any new changes. Check the credit report to be safe.

To conclude

There will always be scammers out there, so you need to pay attention to every credit card statement. It’s a lot better to prevent any attacks rather than deal with the fallout.

And while it might sound hard at first, handling scammers is not that complex, as long as you use a secure payment system and work with a reliable bank.

Still, try to stay away from scammers and avoid gray markets or websites that have prices that are too good to be true!