Beware of Credit Card Skimmers

Just recently, a friend finally got a credit card dispute reversed. I know she was relieved when it finally happened because the interest charges were filing up. Good thing it was resolved without being referred to a collection agency, because that would have been more stressful on her part.

While that is out of the way already, another friend got victimized by credit card fraud. The bank called her to inform her of unusual activity but by then the fraudster have already charged about P90k (about US$2k) worth of shopping loots! The activities happened on weekdays when M is almost always home so it was impossible she ever authorized the transactions. M thinks she got skimmed while dining in a restaurant but that will have to be investigated.

Skimming is apparently the modus operandi of choice these days by those thieves. It is when the fraudsters use a gadget to obtain the credit card details then probably creating a new card to be used. So be wary of double swipes and ask the cashier why the card has to be swiped more than once. And be even more wary to hand over your card for swiping at the terminal to someone, and you do not see the actual swiping happening. That said, avoid using your card in gasoline stations and restaurants.

We have to be really careful these days. No one wants to be hassled by identity thieves.