Help!!! my credit card is missing…

Lea doesn’t always use her credit cards and actually keeps them in a separate wallet. So she was shocked when one day she suddenly found her cards missing. When Lea called the credit card companies to report the loss, she learned that her cards had already been used to make multiple transactions that reached P60,000! Her call to the card issuers came too late - now she has no choice but to pay for items she didn’t buy or use.

It’s an all-too-familiar incident that can happen to any cardholder. Surprisingly, though, lost or stolen cards make up only 12 percent of all cared card fraud. Chut Santiago of the Credit Card Association of the Philippines (CCAP) says a big chunk goes to something much more sophisticated.

THE SKIM SCHEME (AND OTHER CARD SCAMS)
Before swiping machines came along, merchants or establishments used a manual device that traced the embossed information on a transaction slip. Syndicates would get a copy of this slip and duplicate it on a blank plastic card.

Another old-fashioned scam: The National bureau of Investigation Anti-Fraud and computer Crimes Division (NBI-AFCCD) once had a case where the syndicate faxed a letter to an establishment saying that the bank just changed their phone numbers. So when the merchant handles a purchase and calls the “new” number to check, the shady group approves the transaction.

When making payments went electronic, an upgraded version or counterfeit was born. Today, Santiago says about half of cases are due to counterfeit cards and skimming. With skimming, which literally means “reading quickly”, syndicates are able to copy the embossed information on a card as well as its magnetic strip, which contains hidden unique security information.

“It’s now a 100 percent replica,” says Santiago. “Syndicates have come up with devices that are able to copy the card’s magnetic strip. Sometimes it’s the size of a cell phone or a tape recorder, which can easily be carried and concealed by either the cashier or waiter.”

Just how do they get the features of a magnetic strip? It actually happens during payment time. If the waiter or cashier is in on the conspiracy, he needs only to swipe the card on the device and the magnetic strip is copied. At the end of the day, the information is downloaded into a computer, and will soon find new home on a fake card.

The Internet also figures in credit card fraud. CCAP statistics show that 26 percent of cases happen on the Web in the course of online transactions, which are prone to hacking.

Sometimes too the delivery of the credit card is intercepted, with either the courier or card supplier involved. Robert Aguto of the NBI explains how it goes: “the syndicate pretends to be the bank or card issuer and calls up the cardholder to confirm the account. Normally the victims give the other information the syndicate needs for the scam. the syndicate will then make replica cards and even IDs, too. usually the card will be good for two or three weeks, then the bill arrives and the cardholder finds out about the scam.”

BANK ASSISTANCE
According to Santiago, each bank has fraud control unit that monitors cardholders’ transactions daily, in real time. Their main task; to check for sudden large purchases. This means that your card issuers should be familiar with your buying pattern. so in case of card theft or other card purchases, especially if the merchant or establishment can testify that it wasn’t you who used the card. The merchant can help, especially if their store is equipped with the surveillance cameras. The bank or card issuer may also subject signatures to analysis.

So, do you still have to pay for purchases you didn’t make? Note that theft cases are reviewed and extraordinary circumstances taken into consideration, but most cardholders usually end up paying for unauthorized purchases made before the report of a lost card.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR CARD IS WITHIN SIGHT. Treat it as you would your cash.
• FOR ONLINE TRANSACTIONS, deal only with reputable merchants via a secure line with measures like passwords and encryptions. The information should never be given out over e-mail.
• CALL YOU CARD ISSUER OR BANK RIGHT AWAY upon learning of fraud and request for a new card, which gives you a new number and blocks the old one. Also send them a letter stating that “an unauthorized charge” was made, so they know you’re reporting a fraud and not a billing error.
• YOU CAN ALSO FILE A FORMAL COMPLAINT with the NBI Complaints and Records Division. The case is then assiged to the AFCCD. Call them at (632) 525-4093 or 523-8231 local 3456.
• WHEN IN DOUBT, CALL THE BANK’S HOTLINE.

source: goodhousekeeping in cooperation with citibank