Financial losses due to
credit card fraud continue to increase each year. In 2014, $8 billion of losses
were reported by financial experts and ecommerce security groups throughout the
USA. By 2018, US-based finance security firms predict an astounding 125% growth
in card not present scams and identity theft. This spells out over $19 billion
losses in the next couple of years!
What could most likely be
the reasons behind the rapid growth of credit card fraud worldwide? One is
obviously the popularity of the Internet, online social networks and mobile
devices around the world. In the next couple of years, cyber security experts
claim that more than 50% of the world's total mobile user population would've
been victimized by card not present scams, identity theft and other malicious
schemes online at one time or another. One other reason is that more people in
developing countries now have credit and debit cards.
So, how exactly can you avoid being victimized by credit card fraud? Here are some tips that can help
you do this:
How to Avoid Credit Card
Fraud This Year
1. Be wary
when opening emails from unknown sources. Also watch out for private messages
in social networks and instant messages in your favorite chat tools like Skype
or Viber, especially if they're from suspicious senders. These could be
phishing messages, which are laced with fake urgency claims and scare rhetoric
that can trick you into unknowingly giving away your account credentials and
personal details. This could lead to identity theft and credit card fraud among
other more serious scams.
2. Pay
attention to the URLs of links in these messages. Many criminal syndicates that
operate schemes to carry out credit card fraud use fake sites in their phishing
messages. These fake sites are clones of popular online banking platforms,
Webmail portals, social networks, shopping sites and so on. These scammers use
domains or Web addresses that can easily be mistaken for the official domains
of legitimate companies. So, check the URL of any link before clicking it.
3. Don't
believe unrealistic money-making opportunities or shady business ventures.
These are used by many criminal syndicates to lure users into their cyber traps
for credit card fraud among other scams on the Web. If it's too good to be true,
then it probably is.
4. Be extra
careful when hanging out in online dating platforms. Many scammers prowl
popular dating sites and apps for unsuspecting users. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and UK's national online crime reporting center (ActionFraud)
are continuing to send out reminders and alerts about online dating scams to
users in these countries. They began to do this after noticing a huge increase
in online dating scams, in which a significant portion resulted to credit card
fraud and identity theft.
5. Install
system security tools and protective Web privacy applications in your devices,
especially those that you regularly use to buy and pay for things on the Web.
Choose tools from reputable companies. Keep in mind to get applications with a
good malware detection engine with real time scanning and blocking functions.
Pop-up blockers can also protect you from potentially unwanted programs (PUPs)
that are distributed all over the Web.
Remember these tips, and
you'll be on your way to quickly spotting and safely avoiding credit card
fraud. You might want to share this with your family and friends, so they can
also avoid becoming a victim of credit card scams and other fraudulent schemes
on the Internet today.
