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By Reno Charlton
News Editor, 30 May 2008
MANY people have become victims of credit card fraud, and as any one of these people will state this type of fraud can prove both costly and stressful for the victim.
With credit card fraud levels having rocketed over recent years consumers should always remain vigilant and take the necessary precautions to protect themselves against this type of crime.
However, according to a recent report many Brits are failing to protect their credit card accounts adequately.
Officials urging active caution
Officials from the consumers campaign group, Which? recently stated that many Brits were worrying lax about the security of their credit card accounts, and were making a number of basic mistakes that could increase their chances of becoming victims of credit card fraud by a significant level.
This has included people using the same PIN for all plastic cards, which would enable fraudsters to use any card once the PIN was discovered, and also using something as basic as a mother's maiden name for a password.
One official from Which? recently said: "There's a lot more people can do to prevent fraud occurring. Shredding documents and checking your bank statements are a good start, but people need to be wise to basic fraud risks such as using their mother's maiden name as a password, or shopping on websites that aren't secure."
Another official mirrored these concerns, stating: "If someone wants to steal your identity it can be possible to discover your mother's name before she got married. And using just one PIN number for several cards obviously exposes you if you have the details of any card stolen from you."
The protection credit cards offer you
While credit cards offer a level of protection against fraud it is still important to keep your information safe.
All credit cards now come with Chip and PIN technology that makes it harder for people to commit fraud without your PIN number. Although, cardholder-not-present transaction still pose a risk as a PIN number is not required to shop online or over the telephone.
VISA and MasterCard introduced 3D Secure, which offers password protection instead of a PIN when you shop at participating online retailers. However, this is a service still being introduced and has yet to be fully rolled out with all credit card companies and online retailers.
Credit cards also offer various other levels of fraud protection, and depending on your card you can get Internet fraud guarantees or fraud guarantees that promise not to hold you liable for any unauthorised use of your card.
Some lenders also offer active fraud monitoring, in which they will get in touch with you if they notice any suspicious transactions to make sure they are not fraudulent.
Other credit cards are also now offering Identity Protection Services, to help you if you ever have your identity stolen and used to open financial products in your name. Capital One and Barclaycard are two lenders currently offering this a free service to cardholders.
How to keep yourself protected from fraud
Choosing a credit card with a good level of fraud protection can help, active fraud monitoring means your credit card issuer keeps a look out for fraudulent activies for you and fraud guarantees will reimburse you for any unauthorised transactions.
But it is still vitally important to keep your credit cards and details safe, to choose a hard-to-guess PIN number and to not use the same PIN number for each card you hold.
Remember to keep on top of checking your statements each month - the sooner you notice anything fraudulent the easier it will be to try and claim back any lost money and the quicker you'll be able to change your card details to stop any more fraudulent transactions occurring.
And, for passwords, remember to always use a range of numbers as well as letters for passwords, and where possible use other accepted characters too, like hyphens or underscores.
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