Credit Cards At Risk

It is being feared that a recent cyber security breach, could have severe consequences with opportunist fraudsters, inundating the Internet with Phishing scams and viruses, which will leave all the targets that they aim at in confusion surrounding the thefts to our finances.

Social engineering has been around for a long time and is an age old con where crooks used to set up a shop and take your cash for the products that they were going to order for you and when you went back to pick them up they would be gone. It is where the crook gathers your confidence and trust, and then takes your cash and runs.

But the difference with this new wave of social engineering, is that the crook is now faceless and can set up a bogus Internet site, send out what looks like official e-mails from your bank or other accounts that you can use on the internet, hoping that you are panicked into replying to the e-mail that they have sent, thus giving them all your personal details, that they will then use to siphon cash from your accounts.

Where did they come from?

But we are being warned that there may be a sudden surge in these types of frauds, due to the theft of 40 million credit card account details from CardSystems Solutions in Tucson, Arizona and the users of the three Discovery, MasterCard and Visa could be in the firing line for the Phishers to try and tap in to al the uncertainty that will surround such a theft.

The e-mails that you may be sent could inform you that a fraud that a fraud has already been committed and that they will need your credit card details to help in fraud protection and to start your accounts up again, but because you are reading this you will know that it is all a ruse, but what you should always remember why will your credit card company or bank ask for details that they already have on record?

The soloution..........

The answer is the would never ask for this information as they have no need to, so if you ever receive one of these e-mails there is a simple check to make, ask the sender of the e-mail for a case reference number, then seek out one of your bank statements and call the phone number and the bank will be able to verify the e-mail that you have received.