My Digital Online Diary

As I checked my credit card this morning, I came to realize that I am almost beyond my limit. I can’t even make another purchase worth $5 because my available balance is lower than that. Did somebody use my card for reaching this high? Well, no one. It’s just me. I make a lot of purchases few weeks ago.

But, using my credit card by a different person is a possibility. Here are some of the most common fraud activities involving credit cards:

• Lost/Stolen Cards – credit cards are taken from owners and used by unauthorized third party.
• Skimming – the magnetic stripe of the card, which contains all the owners’ personal data, is copied. Unscrupulous parties then use this to create another credit card.
• Account Takeover – an unknown third party pretends to be a bank employee, and calls clients to retrieve personal account information for subsequent fraud use.
• Promo offers – This is a variation of the account takeover, wherein an unknown third party pretends to be a bank employee, and offers the customer a credit card upgrade or higher credit limit in exchange for surrendering the card.