Monday, July 23, 2007

Protect against credit card fraud

The most common way for criminals to get credit card information is through phishing, which involves a fake email that appears to be sent from your credit card company. Normally, this fake email states that there was an error with your account, or that it was accessed by unauthorized personnel and needs your attention.

Spotting fake emails isn’t hard to do - as long as you know what to look for. The most obvious hint is the fact that they don’t even have a credit card from the company that has sent the email. For others, the link is what gives the fake email away. Whenever you get an email from a credit card that you believe to be fake, you should always hover your mouse over the link, then “right click” the link with the mouse and select “view source”. If the link is indeed fake, the website address that comes up will be something other than that of a credit card company.

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