January 13,2009
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Other CC Fears You May Have, Pt.1 –
– Scams and Frauds.The last series of articled, entitled: "Fearing Fear Itself", dealt with common credit card fears that newbees and those of less experience may have. The remaining questions are more likely to be oriented toward those who have been ‘in the credit card trenches' and either cover more in-depth topics or more serious concerns. Some credit card threats are real but may not be what they seem. Fraud always concerns everyone but, many people don't understand what their liabilities are.
"I'm scared of being taken by these fraudulent web sites": Granted, this can be very intimidating. But, be comforted in knowing that there are many ways to protect yourself from these. For one thing, always make sure that you are the one ‘initiating the call'. Don't fall prey to nebulous solicitations and invitations. Beware of what is called ‘phishing'. Phishing takes place when a thief attempts to gain your sensitive credit card information. This may come in the form of accessing a fraudulent site, answering questions either on-line or on the phone. E-mails that spoof as legitimate will pose as: A business; One of your utility companies; Your lending/bank institution or even; Your local sheriff's department. They're all after your private credit card information.
As for the fraudulent sites, always make sure that you, yourself call up the site by entering the URL in the address bar of your browser. When the site comes up to the point of asking for your sensitive credit card information, always ensure that the address begins with ‘https://'. The ‘s' at the end ensures that your connection is secure and that no one will be able to eavesdrop.
Next, find the ‘locked padlock' icon to the right of your browser's ‘address bar'. Click on it to check the certificate validation. It should say something like "VeriSign" or "CyberTrust" vouches for this site to be registered as [the sight address you intend to be doing business with]. You can go even deeper, if you wish, by clicking the ‘view certificates' hyperlink at the bottom of this drop-down screen. The screen this will bring up, goes into great detail. Now you should know who you're dealing with. Always use ‘.com's when surrendering credit card vitals. No international sites (like ‘.ck').