Are Credit Cards Safe?

One can hear many stories about credit card frauds.advantage. Shipping companies can only guarantee
These frauds can be explained as illegal use of creditprompt delivery of items to the suggested location. But,
card information of a customer for buying goods orthey do not have the authority to verify the identity of
services.the cardholder.
There are different types of frauds that includeAccount Takeover:
stealing credit cards, compromising accounts, mail orThis is another mode of credit card fraud. There are
internet order fraud, account takeover, phishing, cardingtwo different types of account takeovers. In one
and skimming. We are going to discuss some ofsituation, false or counterfeit documents are created
common frauds that have started occurring with theand used to open an account on someone else's
advent of Internet.name. Sometimes, documents of a customer are
Mail or Internet Order Fraud:stolen and used for creating an account in another
This type of fraud occurs with online merchants orbank in the name of the customer.
traders who sell products or services throughIn another type of account takeover, personal and
websites. In case of online transactions, merchants dovaluable information of the customer is gathered by
not have the facility for inspecting the details on thethe scamster. Here, the scamster contacts the bank
card physically, a situation known are CNP or "Cardover a telephone and identifies himself as the genuine
Not Present". In order to obtain the credit card details,cardholder before the card issuing bank. Then a
the cardholder is contacted by mail, telephone orrequest is placed with the bank to change the address
through a transaction gateway. There is no way ofof communication. Using this changed address, the
verifying the identity of the customer in case of ancriminal reports a card theft or a card loss and asks
online transaction except for the security verificationfor a replacement of the same. The new card is then
code or CVV number present on the rear of the card.sent to the changed address and is then used
Anybody can do an online transaction if the credit cardfraudulently.
details are present. These details include name of theThis said, if you follow all the safety procedures
card holder, expiry date on the card, credit cardinstructed by your credit card company, use of credit
number and the CVV number. This is the mostcard any where can be relatively safe. Make sure you
significant disadvantage of doing an online transaction,educate yourself well or else you can be a victim to a
an aspect that fraudsters can use for their owncredit card fraud.