Credit card fraud affects millions of Americans each year, and the problem is so widespread that most credit card companies have departments dedicated exclusively to credit card fraud. If you own a credit card, it's important to understand what to do if you believe you've been victimized and how you can prevent credit card fraud.
Contact the Card Issuer
The first thing to do if you believe you are the victim of credit card fraud is to contact your credit card company. The majority of credit card companies have 24-hour hotlines that consumers can call to report a lost or stolen card. After you report a stolen or lost credit card, the maximum amount that you're liable for by law is only $50 per credit card, according to the Better Business Bureau. This makes it extremely important to contact your credit card company as soon as you believe you're the victim of credit card fraud.
Contact Credit Bureaus
If you see unauthorized activity on your credit report, contact your credit bureaus in writing. Send them a letter with a list of the activity on your credit report you believe is inaccurate. In addition, you may want to ask them to freeze your credit accounts. Freezing your credit accounts can be beneficial because it means that lenders can't review your credit history and prevents new lines of credit from being opened. However, bear in mind that unfreezing your credit accounts takes several days after you ask a credit bureau to freeze it.
Prevention
The Federal Trade Commission suggests avoiding lending your credit card to friends and avoiding leaving your card out in plain sight. In addition, you should always destroy carbon copies of credit card transactions and save receipts for all your transactions. If you save your receipts, disputing unauthorized transactions will be much easier later on. It's also important to make sure you don't sign blank receipts. Always draw a line through blank spaces above your total.
Review Your Monthly Statement
Wells Fargo suggests reviewing your monthly credit card statement each month and looking for unauthorized charges. If you don't review your statement each month, you might never find out that you're the victim of credit card fraud.
Online Safety
Never send your credit card number to another person or credit card company via email. Emails are usually not secure, according to Wells Fargo. In addition, you should always look for "secure transaction" symbols at the bottom of your web browser before shopping online. If you do not see "secure transaction" symbols, the website is probably not safe to shop on.
0 comments:
Post a Comment