Financial scams involving credit cards

The latest scam employs your credit card and a call from a person who may or may not work for your bank. Due to the increasing number of fraud and scams that are prevalent these days, consumers should be careful when talking about their financial information on the telephone. Americans should be aware that scam artists are finding ever more smart ways to acquire personal information.

In a new credit card scam that is currently popular, criminals are contacting consumers and pretending to be customer service agents of their credit card company.

How can unscrupulous individuals obtain vital personal information from people? Often, all they do is ask their victims for it. Today, for all practical purposes, you are your financial information. All that is required for a thief to pretend to be you is to have some information no one has but you. Once they have such information, criminals can apply for credit cards in your name, take out loans or mortgages, and spend money like never before.

It's easy to acquire someone's credit card number, but to engage in online transactions, you will additionally need a number from the back of the card. That is a number known as the CVC2 number, which is a three digit number that is printed only on the back of the card. If anyone should acquire your credit card number and the Security number, they can go on a virtually unlimited spending holiday and all of the debts will become yours. A large number of online stores request this number as confirmation that the buyer is the actual account holder. The security number does not appear on the statement. 

The financial scam is accomplished by an individual who contacts you and describes himself as a representative of your credit card company. He says that he is calling due to some unusual financial transactions on your credit card account. He names some curious purchases that he knows are not yours, and you confirm that you did not buy those items. He assures you that he will resolve any problems and deduct the charges from your account. He then asks you for the number from the card to "prove" that you actually have the card in your possession. If you give him the number, you have been scammed.

Consumers are frequently quite trusting, and if an individual calls and says they are from the charge card company, a large number of people will believe them, particularly if they have your name and charge card card number. Should you provide this financial information, it may cost you a great deal of money. Be aware that no financial institution will ever ask you to provide information that they already have. You are the cardholder of record, so your issuer does not care if you actually have the card or not. That means that they have no reason at all to ask you for identifying information from the back of the card.

If you get a call from your credit card company and you are not sure if it is genuine or not, call the credit card company directly. Never provide personal information to a stranger who calls you from out of the blue. If you contact the card-issuing bank, then you will know for certain with whom you are speaking and you can then discuss the situation in person.