How to Protect Yourself Against the Rise of Credit Card Fraud Now
You might think that hackers and other scammers will take a break in the world for a while, right? But this is far from the case.
According to a report by Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS), which is quoted by the Wall Street Journal, had dollar fraudulent attempts in April 35% higher than in the same period a year ago. Fortunately, the FIS stated that most of the fraudulent attempts were detected before completion.
The FIS told the newspaper that scammers are getting some of the data they use to access people’s card numbers, from hacks that took place before the pandemic. It’s a method that isn’t limited to credit or debit transactions – last week we wrote about fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims made on behalf of people whose data may have been stolen in past violations.
In one case reported by the Wall Street Journal, a man received a call from the anti-fraud department that issued his card. He was wrong.
At the end of April, Anton Hinton received a call from someone allegedly representing JPMorgan Chase & Co. The caller, who knew Mr. Hinton’s full name, email address, and the last four digits of his account, said his debit card number had been stolen. and it was necessary to freeze.
The caller told Mr. Hinton to set up a digital wallet for purchases until Chase sent the new card back to his Cleveland home. During the conversation, he received an email purportedly from Chase with a one-time activation code to set up a digital wallet.
When Mr. Hinton hung up, he saw over $ 300 worth of purchases in Florida.
We often advise people who do not trust a call from their “bank” – say, if you are asked to read a generated one-time code – to hang up and call this institution directly to make sure the call is legitimate. But during a pandemic, with many people reaching out to customers for help to request deferred payment plans or canceled refunds, long wait times are pretty much the norm. This can be even more frustrating for those trying to tell the truth about their financial security.
The pandemic offers hackers a wide range of opportunities. Think of it this way: If you’ve asked for a deferred payment from a credit card company and you’re not making a lot of new payments, you may not be keeping track of your account. Scammers know about this and take advantage of it, hoping that you will not notice their illegal actions.
It’s safe to say that our guards are already up: people even threw away their debit cards for benefits because they look like fraudulent waste paper. And who can blame them? But while we’ve seen an increase in fraudulent attempts during the coronavirus outbreak, that doesn’t stop the bad guys from trying.
In the first quarter of 2020, the FTC received more than 13,400 reports of credit card fraud. While this may be on par with the first quarter of 2019 (13,708 complaints), agency data from the year to date shows that scammers do not. t change.
And since many are plagued by weeks of isolation, international health uncertainty, and national political unrest, it makes sense to say you can be distracted from the trivialities of your finances right now.
If you haven’t reviewed your credit or debit card transactions in a while, take a look at them today. If you haven’t already, set up fraud alerts that will automatically notify you of unusual write-offs, or heck, set up ones that will notify you every time a transaction is made so you can be sure that every dollar that leaves your account of your choice.
You can’t be too careful right now, even if you are dealing with a lot of problems. Taking small steps to strengthen your financial security can improve your peace of mind at least a little.
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