Credit Card Phishing Worsens

Phishing is getting worse and cost the banks £12 million last year, but there is a new system that Nat West, Halifax and Barclays are introducing in the fight against this type of credit card fraud.

If you don’t know or are not sure what Phishing is, then here is a little insight into what the crooks of this world will do to get their hands on your money and details. Phishing consists of the crooks sending you E-mail to your computer, which resembles your bank E-mails that will hopefully for the crooks trick you into revealing your account details, so that they can then use them to purchases goods in your name or to make counterfeited credit cards.

There has been an exceptionally high increase in this type of fraud in the last 18 months and April this year saw one of the highest number of hits recorded, 54 in fact just to put a figure on it, which is in stark contrast to when it began in 2003, where there was only 3 hits in the first month that it first started.

While that the attacks have increased over this time, the number of people who have fallen victim to the deception is still not on a high scale, though it is the higher number of attacks that are causing the main concern, which has led the banks into delays that will be used to investigate any out of place transactions.

The delays will be introduced to any new transfers from one persons account to another and it wont effect any existing set-up’s between two accounts, any credit card payments or household bills that are already on the go. The delays are expected to be between anything from a couple of hours to a full day and are a way of checking that the transaction is legitimate and not unusual, so that there is less chance of any wrong doing.

If the bank does feel that the transaction does seem out of the ordinary, then they will contact the account holder to which the transaction is being accredited to, for confirmation before it is passed and the payment will then be released.

The downside to this is that many people have been calling for quicker timescales on the transfer of funds and may feel that this is a reason for the banks to sit on your cash for a little while longer.