Abuse of payment cards
With technological advances, the methods of protection of debit and credit cards against abuse have also improved, but you can also contribute to the safety of your money
Cash is being used less and less as a means of payment, and debit and credit cards are being used more and more.Lately, there has been a rise in card crime. Even though technological advances resulted in better methods of protection of cards against abuse, you can also contribute to the safety of your money in electronic form.
Precautions
You should be the only person who uses your card—do not give it to anyone else.Other precautions:
- Learn your PIN by heart and do not write it down or give it to anyone else
- When entering your PIN at an ATM or POS terminal, cover the keypad with your hand
- Call your bank if your card or PIN did not arrive by post when expected
- Pay attention to what the salesperson or waiter is doing with your card
- Keep the ATM or POS terminal receipt, as well as the relevant invoices
- Regularly check your bank statements.
Withdrawing cash from an ATM
Be particularly careful when you are withdrawing cash from an ATM. Try to use ATMs in banks or other locations which have video surveillance.If you notice suspicious persons near the ATM, find another ATM to use.
When entering your PIN, cover the keypad with your hand to prevent anyone from copying your card information with an appropriate technical device and transferring it to another card (skimming), which card they could then use to withdraw cash from your account or to shop.
If the ATM did not return your card, consider that you might be at risk of fraud. Criminals have a special device which they put into the ATM to make it look like the ATM did not return your card. The criminals will then pretend to be helpful passers-by who will try to entice you to re-enter your PIN while they are watching. After you have given up and left, the criminals will then pull out their machine out of the ATM together with your card and use your PIN to withdraw cash from your account.
Online shopping
You should also be careful when shopping online, as there is a possibility to have your information stolen during an online transaction.In this case, criminals do not need to come into physical possession of your card, but can simply use the information from it to shop online or over their phone.
For this reason:
- Only purchase from trusted sellers
- Check whether there is a secure data transfer system (https://www..) in place
- Pay with a card with a limit
- If you suspect fraud, immediately call your bank to reduce the chance of unauthorised use of your card.