Keep Your Card Safe, Credit Card Fraud is on the Rise

Identity thieves have rocked the United States market by cheating 11.1 million Americans of $54 billion in 2009. In terms of numbers of victims it was a 12% rise on 2008 numbers, and 12.5% rise in terms of dollar value. Card fraud was one of the biggest tools used by identity thieves to snatch such a big amount from the US people.

And among card frauds, 75% of fraud incident happened with credit cards, which is a rise of 12% compared to credit card frauds in 2008. The percentage of debit card fraud dipped by 2% making the total percentage of credit card fraud in 2009 equals 33%.

In 2009, the number of fraudulent credit card accounts also increased by 6% to reach 39% of total identity fraud victims compared to 33% of total identity fraud victims in 2008. The fraudulent new account opening also doubled up in 2009. The number of new e-mail payment accounts increased by 12%, whereas, 29% new accounts fraud victims complains about new mobile phone accounts fraudulently opened in their names.

These numbers are scary, and you have all the right to get scared as long as it keeps you on your toes working hard to fix any loophole in your personal security, particularly of identity.

Steps to take to keep credit card safe

• Do not flash your card on the first opportunity given to you to show it. Only use it with reliable vendors.
• In retail stores, make sure that your card is swiped in front of you.
• If you are going out for vacation then make sure to inform your credit card company and ask them not to send any bill as you suspect someone will pick it and use the address and other details on it.
• If possible avoid getting paper bills. Switch to e-mail bills. For this purpose, provide an e-mail ID that has https as prefix, in other words, which runs on a secure server.
• Keep your pin numbers, and CVV/CVV2 numbers handy. Do not share it.

These simple behavioral changes will keep your card secure, so why not practice it from now?