Credit Card Skimming – Beware (June 2011)

- From my husband -

I’m one of those who has multiple credit cards and have been using these for close to 6 yrs. One of those cards (from a bank which claims to never sleep) has given me sleepless nights from the past 2-3 days. While I had the card in my possession, I suddenly got an alert for a transaction from my card. I immediately called the customer care and got the card blocked. I usually check my online account every 2-3 days, but the transactions reflect only after 3 days. In the next few days, I realized there were 29 transactions totaling to an amount of Rs. 45,000 which weren’t made by me. All of these are swipe transactions and not online. The bank will now investigate this and settle the amount in my account if these are found to be fraud transactions.

The fraudster who used the fake credit card number with the same number as mine made merry with the card in just 5 days. The guy started from a wine shop/bar, bought some goggles at an optical shop, some food at a super market, had a sumptuous meal in a restaurant, got himself some nice boots, went on to buy some mp3 players, filled fuel into his cars 6 times full totaling upto 15k, bought another goggles for his friend, had the best sweets in town. Finally when he decided to treat himself with a mobile phone worth > 5000 – it triggered an alert and I guess he moved onto the next card. All of this in 5 days.

I intend to fight this and get the charges off my account and I also believe it will not be very difficult for whoever it is to apprehend this guy given that he had the audacity to shop all of this in & around just one locality – Jayanagar 4^th block, Bangalore.

Reason for this mail though is to give some Dos & Don’ts to all those smart ones out there using Credit Cards. Here goes:

Dos:

1. Ensure card is always in your possession
2. Memorize your credit card numbers
3. Have customer care numbers stored on your phone
4. Opt for lesser credit limit on the cards
5. Configure transaction alerts for any amount greater than 500
6. Have online account access and regularly monitor the transactions
7. CVV should be scratched out

Donts:

1. Swipe your card in shady places (Bars, Petrol pumps)
2. Convey credit card details to anyone over phone
3. Give Xerox copies of your existing cards when applying for fresh ones