Decrease Your Risk of Becoming a Victim of Credit Card Fraud

Your credit card information could easily fall into the hands of a criminal if you don’t use precautionary steps. It is important to repeatedly check your balance statements and use caution when making purchases. Criminals are becoming crafty with the ways that they can steal your information, so take notice and be wary when making transactions in the following situations:

• Online Checkouts – Any safe checkout site should be secured with a registered log in with a user ID and password. If that’s not available, you can almost guarantee that the site isn’t secure and your information could become available to the public.
• Purchases on Smart Phones and Public Computers – It is never sensible or logical to make transactions on these devices because the public Wi-Fi signal is much less secure. The data could potentially be viewed and compromised by others. Use caution or wait to make your purchase from a location where you know the network is secure.
• Non-bank-owned ATMs – Plain and simple, these locations and devices are just not as safe. There are now devices that are made to also look like ATMs but instead of dispensing money, the read your card information. Also, be suspect of stand-alone devices that may be at places like gas stations. Most add-ons are usually unsafe.

Check back next week to learn about more places and situations to avoid to decrease your risk of becoming a victim of credit card fraud or visit http://www.creditcards.com for the entire article.