The rise of the Internet has made shopping infinitely
easier. People can order a wide range of products at attractive discounts from
the comfort of their home and also have it delivered to their doorstep. The
popularity of various e-commerce platforms has made customers increasingly
dependent on their credit cards to carry out more of their purchases.
While the benefits to online shopping are many, there are
also some dangers that we need to be aware of. First among them is
that of credit card theft. With cyber criminals looking to constantly steal
credit card information of customers, here are some simple tips you can use to avoid
credit card fraud.
Use Disposable or
Virtual Credit Cards
You can prevent the possibility of credit card fraud by opting for disposable or virtual credit cards. This facility is
available with most banks and allows customers to create virtual credit cards
for a specific amount. This way, you can do your shopping with these disposable
credit cards without having to part with your real credit card details. The
online company will also accept these cards like they accept all other credit
cards. Even in the rare case of credit card theft, you will lose only the
amount of the money that has been assigned for that particular card.
Liability Protection for Your Credit Card
According to Federal law, customers who make purchases
through credit cards are liable only up to $50 of fraudulent purchases.
Unfortunately, these laws differ widely for both credit and debit cards and
quite different with banks that issue them as well. Hence it might take
customers considerable amount of time to process claims in case of credit card
theft and this can be an extremely difficult period if you have been left to
deal with an empty account. However liability protection might offer some
respite and you can go to the FTC website to check and see how best you could limit
these credit card fraud losses.
Don’t Store Credit
Card Details on Websites
A lot of e-commerce platforms and other payment related
websites provide customers the opportunity to store their credit card details.
Customers also find this convenient because they do not have to re-enter those
numbers every time they come online to make a purchase. They fail to realise
that by storing their credit card details, they become increasingly vulnerable
to credit card theft online. There are many cyber criminals who make a living
hacking into websites to steal a bunch of credit card numbers and if you
happens to be one of them, you could end up becoming a serious victim of online
fraud. While it might be tedious to re-enter the numbers every time you make a
purchase, you can feel safe about the fact that you are reducing the
possibility of someone committing credit card fraud with your credit card
details.
Regularly Check
Monthly Statement
One of the biggest problems with credit card fraud is that
many people do not come to know about it on time. Cyber criminals have become
very clever today. Rather than spend lumps sums of money with your credit card,
they end up making small purchases, which makes it easy to avoid detection. People
who do not check their credit card statements regularly are at a risk of losing
thousands of dollars over the course of the next few months. With modern banking apps available for
download on your smartphone, you can check your monthly statement even while
you are on the move.
