Identity Theft in the 21st Century: Monitoring Your Credit and Debit Cards
By admin • Oct 13th, 2008 • Category: Credit Card Theft and Fraud, Identity Theft Protection, LifeLock, LifeLock Promo Code, lifelock reviewsYou have a more than one in ten chance of becoming the victim of identity theft this year. With this simply and sad fact understood, you need to be sure that you are on guard when it comes to protecting yourself against becoming the victim of identity theft. In this regard, there are a variety of different steps that you must take when it comes to protecting yourself against identity theft. High on this list of steps that you need to take is monitoring your credit and debits cards closely and constantly.
As will be discussed later in this article, there are some types of identity theft that really can occur almost instantly when your credit or debit cards are involved. Therefore, the constant monitoring of your credit and debit cards really does become a crucial step for you in your own efforts to protect
yourself from becoming the victim of identity theft.
Thanks to the Internet and World Wide Web it literally is possible for you to monitor your credit and debit cards on a daily basis if you so desire. You can access your accounts online (of course, using a secure computer at your home) and quickly check the activity on your account. In addition, you will want to check the transactions you made with your credit or debit card to make sure they are correct.
Unfortunately, there are identity theft related scams that can be hard to detect unless you are double checking your own transactions. For example, assume you have had a lovely dinner in a nice restaurant. It simply is not beyond the realm of possibility for the server to add a few additional dollars to your credit or debit card charge as an additional tip and pocket the money. While you personally being out a few bucks might not be noticed by you or seem worth the effort to complain about, understand that if it happened to you it is happening to dozens of people each and every week. And that amounts to a great deal of money in the end.
Consider for example a another fairly common identity theft related scheme involving restaurants or retail stores. A staff member will take your credit card information – credit card number, your name, the expiration date, the security code number on the back and even your billing zip code – and be able to turn around and easily use this information to order an amazing amount of merchandise online. The thief can move quickly and rack up a pretty sizable bill before you even know what happened unless you regularly monitor your credit and debit cards.
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Identity Theft in the 21st Century: Monitoring Your Credit and Debit Cards…
You have a more than one in ten chance of becoming the victim of identity theft this year. With this simply and sad fact understood, you need to be sure that you are on guard when it comes to protecting yourself against becoming the victim of identity…
Having worked in many years as an IT network security, you realise that the more you are aware of the situation, the less you are caution of your own cards/accounts. Protection on cards should be thesame as protecting yourself, when your fully cautious of trouble in your environment the better you become a victim. Use your cards in secured and trusted sites.
The last point about off line scams perpetrated by retail or restaurant workers is particularly alarming. I speak with people all the time that are extremely cautious about where they enter their credit or debit card information online, but then will let a waiter slip off with their credit card without giving it a second thought. The only way, in my experience, to really be safe in these situations is to pay with cash.