Credit card fraud is scary to think about, but unfortunately it is a reality that we have to live with and be careful of. Situations as severe as identity theft take place all the time when it comes to stealing Visa and MasterCard accounts, it actually goes to the extent where the thief pretends to be someone else so that they are able to use these cards as they wish. Although statistics show that the fraud attempts have decreased in the year 2010, it doesn’t mean that you should let your guard down. Fraud prevention is easy, but getting caught by a fraudster is easy too.
If you use Internet banking you should never follow links in emails from your “bank” because your bank will not email you to follow a link, which means if you have received emails like this you were likely the target of phishing scams and credit card fraud. Should you receive such mail, it is important for you to report it so that an investigation can begin. You have to be so careful these days with your MasterCard and Visa, and any other card that you use; you can be targeted for identity theft or just theft in general when you least expect it. In many cases an investigation is just about impossible, especially if a crime occurred online, but it is worth a try so you always have to report an incident to the police.
Some people don’t report fraud, and if they don’t then it won’t show up in statistics, and this is also a reason why it is vital for you to report all crime related incidents. As they say, prevention is better than cure, so you have to be alert at all times and never accept help from strangers. If an ATM looks dodgy, don’t use it, report it, don’t follow links in phishing scam emails and never ever give out your personal credit card information. Credit card fraud is real, it’s here and it’s happening every day, so be careful at all times and report something unusual.