Posts Tagged credit card information

Who should you blame when you discover that your credit card information got stolen?  If you can’t figure out how it could have possibly been compromised, think back to the last few months: did you sell any of your old computers, game consoles and gadgets?

According to many dealers who buy pre-owned electronics such as laptops, computers, game consoles (like Xbox 360 and PS3), cell phones and PDAs, many consumers dispose of their wares without bothering to reformat the storage.  As such, many of the pertinent info they save into the gadgets remain there, easily available for the taking.

Both on laptops and gaming consoles, customers frequently enter their credit card numbers to purchase from online services.  To avoid having to enter it every time they need to buy something, most people choose to save that info on their computers so that their transactions are automatically completed without having to go through the same grind again.   On cell phones and other similar portable gadgets, many people actually save information like credit card numbers and PIN so they can refer to it quickly when they need to.

When you go in to sell any of these stuff, you’ll need to make sure none of your data remains, lest be at risk of your financial information falling into the wrong hands.  As such, always follow these guidelines:

• Use a data shredding program to overwrite information on your computer’s hard disk.  While reformatting may be able to do the job, certain data recovery tools are actually able to retrovert information even after formatting.
• Make sure you reset your game console to factory settings before selling them.  This should restore all contents of the storage to its original form.  To make sure, try to buy something and see if the data is still present.
• Like game devices, reset your phone and other portable consoles to factory settings.  Always verify if the  process worked before bringing it into the shop.

This week, Australian police arrested several people involved in credit card theft.  The perpetrators allegedly stole credit card information off people from different countries via phishing sites (basically web pages that pretend to facilitate transactions yet only exist to gather your information), used them to buy luxury products (like electronics and tools) and sold the goods on Ebay.  Police believe the group is massive and has been in operation for years.

Since they practically got the products at no cost, the group sold them at slashed down prices, which allowed them to turn it over very fast.  Using the system, the crime ring has survived unscathed for a long time before being recently caught.

While this news happened just two days ago, the same story has been repeated so many times.  Not only do credit card scams exist, they are seriously rampant and can leave you victimized if you don’t watch out.  As such, you should exercise vigilance, always checking your credit card statements to see if there are transactions that you aren’t aware of.

In case you find any invalid entries in your statement, call the card company immediately and inform them of the fraud.  Even if it’s a $5 charge, always err on the side of caution when it comes to potential identity theft.  Believe me, the hassle of calling up your credit card issuer, requesting a new number and obtaining a new card are well worth the potential turmoil that awaits you if your account is really compromised.

Credit card fraud is a serious problem.  Take it seriously.