(NAPSA)—Imagine going out failure to report the loss of the Your server takes your credit card and returns to tell you that your card has been declined. Later, you discover the account has charges “Identity theft is a cruel crime that can continue beyond someone to dinner at a local restaurant. card.” losing their money or personal property; it’s a crime that can rob totaling more than $800 that you did not make. innocent men and women oftheir potential for credit card fraud when knowing it has occurred,” said Mike Laubsted, senior vice president of Card Fraud Operations for good credit, reputation and financial well-being without them ever A recent case highlights the you don’t witness a transaction. San Francisco police arrested a waitress for unauthorized use of a credit card WaMu Bank. after having received several simi- lar reports of credit card fraud at a Bay Area restaurant. All the victims remembered using their credit card at the same restaurant and identified the waitress as their server. The waitress told authorities she had sold the card numbers to a friend for $40. A total of $17,500 was charged on the cards to pay for electronics, clothing, cell phones and utility bills. Credit card fraud is on the rise and costs issuers hundreds of mil- lions of dollars each year. Credit card customers are often not held responsible for fraudulent charges, as long as they report the fraud in a timely manner. The convenience of using a credit card to pay for a meal ata restaurant, for example, belies the risk for credit card fraud, said Kathy Li, director, Consumer Action in San Francisco. The restaurant industry is plagued with the highest incidence of credit card skimming, the unscrupulous practice of swiping a customer’s credit card through a device, similar in size to a beeper, to record the magnetic strip data for the creation of fraudulent credit cards. Consumers are urged to watch closely as store and restaurant employees handle their credit card to make sure they are not copying or “skimming”the credit card number. The information that is obtained can be used to order products and services online for Don’t carry credit cards you don’t use. several weeks until the unsuspect- ing victim is made awarevia his or her monthly credit card statement, which can give the thieves plenty of time to run upbills. Thieves may sell your informa- tion. Often, the criminals skim- ming your information into the device are not the same criminals that are using that information to commit identity theft or other crimesof fraud. The card information can be encoded onto new white plastic counterfeit cards. The card can then be swiped at ATMs or ata merchantlocation. If fraud strikes, you should act right away by calling the card issuer to report the card as being lost or stolen. Follow up the phone call with a letter to your issuer, which should include the card number, and the date you reported it lost or stolen, because once the loss of the card is reported, the consumeris not responsible for unauthorized charges. “Even if a consumeris late in reporting the loss, or was not aware of the unauthorized use until their next statement arrives, their liability is limited to $50 per card by federal law, although many issuers have $0 liability policies,” explained Li. “However, it must be reported in a timely mannerto avoid losing protections under the law if there’s negligent (Washington Mutual) According to both Consumer Action and WaMu, there are a number of things consumers can do to protect themselves against credit card fraud and identity theft, including: When making a purchase, after the credit card is returned, makesure it’s yourcard. e Always make sure you get your credit card receipt because it may include your credit card number. e Never give your credit card numberover the phone to someone you do not know. e Never respond to an e-mail asking for your credit card num- ber or personal banking informa- tion, no matter how official or legitimate it looks. Carefully review your month- ly credit card statement and report any discrepancies right away. Notify the credit card company if you decide to make any unusually large purchase; otherwise, the account may be flagged for possible fraud. “Even though there has been a lot of consumer education information published, in our experience, many consumers are still very concerned but are not com- pletely knowledgeable about credit card fraud and identity theft,” explained Laubsted. “Every consumer can take some very basic but effective actions to prevent identity theft from occurring in most instances.”
