Catch Credit Card Fraud-Credit cards Fraud Strip and encoding, magnetic stripe and credit card theft and secrets number

many of us have credit cards because its easy and cheap. Now lots of us wonder if we are going to be next of the list of a credit card thief. You just can't be too careful when using a credit card.

What is credit card theft?

The purpose of credit card theft is to obtain unauthorized funds from an account or the purpose to obtain goods and services without paying. Credit card fraud is a wide ranging term for theft or fraud committed using a credit card or similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction.

Here are several secrets of a credit card thief you need to know:

• You may noticed that every credit card has a magnetic stripe on the back on it, that's is where important information is being store. Now a waiter or waitress with skimmers can hack into a computer and steel your information and sell it online for a price. People who buy that information can use an encoder to put the information on a fake credit card and buy stuff online.
• Many American express credit cards has no limit which makes it easier to buy a lot more. More merchants requires more security for American express cards than others do, they may require you to enter your four digit code in front or your zip code. That information is not stored on the magnetic strip of your card, so if someone skimmed your card they will still need your zip code or the number to the front.
• now if you are using a debt card it is more risky because its your personal money at risk. This is simply because if someone gets hold of your debit card information and uses it, your cash is gone until your persuade the bank to give it back to you and this can take a while. Credit cards are much better at protecting you against fraud, and if you are worried about debt you can always pay them off every month.
• Watch your account, don't just read your statements once a month cause someone could start using your account and do a lot of damage within the time you haven't check and it can be hard to catch and dispute, that thousands of dollars.
• Its pretty easy to create a fake online store or create a store that sells stuffs, you need to be careful because its real purpose is to collect credit card information. Try sticking with reputable sites or sites with great reviews. They may create stores with prices that are extremely low, in turn tempting you to share your credit information. If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is, they just want your credit information. Don't buy anything that is sent through to you by email especially if you never heard of them.
• Scam artiste normally gather your email from different websites, so don't put your emails on websites, if you do make sure its not made public set it to private. If the scam artiste is around a certain age he/she may likely to target victims their age group to get a fake ID with your social security card number, birth information etc. The only thing that might not be real is the picture, but with technology these days people can get that too.

• Remember when you are using a computer online, its sending information between your computer and the website you are using, so if someone intercept that connection they will be able to sniff out information- if you are using important information they will be able to access the data between you and the website. Its very important to access secure websites when using sensible data. If you are using an open WIFI connection well you must know there is not security to protect your data.
• All financial services has authenticated ways to for you access you data online, maybe a password or a security question. Now if the question they ask is not related to you for example, "do you have kids" well you may not have kids but answer it anyways because no one can guess that information.
• ATM skimming is the most common form of credit card theft, cash is king. Someone put a card reader machine and capture your pin and then drain your account. The skimmer goes over the card slot design to look like part of the ATM. Some of the equipment being used now is very hard to differentiate the between the fake and the real thing. Try using the same ATM machine every time and look out for anything out of the ordinary. Some thieves may install their own ATM machine with skimmers, so it is better to use the ATM machine at the bank, its less unlikely to happen there.
• The biggest thing a bank can do for card users is to get away from magnetic stripes, they aren't that secure anymore, anyone can get a magnetic stripe reader for $5-10.