Earlier there were pickpockets, but now there are highly qualified fraudsters capable of stealing money from plastic cards, and in various ways. How not to fall for scammers? What if the theft did occur?
Your phone is an assistant for scammers
At present, SMS messages have begun to come to phones, containing a text like this: "Your card is blocked. To unblock it, please call …", "Application for debiting funds has been accepted", "Your card has been canceled."
Having received this kind of "letter of happiness", most people are seized by panic, which makes them, headlong, rush to call back at the specified phone numbers. At the other end, fraudsters who introduce themselves as bank employees pick up the phone and in a conversation they find out all the information necessary to steal money from the card: card number, expiration date, CVV - code and PIN - code, explaining that this information is needed to restore the card. Having received all the information, the scammers send a transaction request to the bank on behalf of the deceived person. The bank sends its client in sms - message a one-time code, which is a confirmation of the operation on the card. But the scammers also manage to fish him out. And as soon as the person gives the code, that's it, the money is debited from the card.
To call or not to call:
When you receive such a sms - message, you need to contact the bank of which you are a client. Call the phone number that is indicated on your card, on the back, and not the number from the message. Calling the bank, inform that an attempt was made to commit fraud on your card. If you are talking to a real bank employee, he will not ask for your card details.
Also, to date, there are many scammers who appear to be buyers. They rummage through various message boards, find a seller, call, inform that they want to buy his goods, but due to the fact that they are far away at the moment (on a business trip, visiting, etc.) they have no opportunity to drive up in the near future and complete the sale. Fraudsters say that they are ready to pay the deposit by transferring it to the card and asking for its details. Well, then everything happens according to the above scheme.
Cheating in the store
Be carefull. Indeed, in the store, when paying for goods by card, you can also be deceived. The cashier, after performing the operation, informs you that the payment did not go through and asks to repeat it again. As a result, funds are debited from your card twice. In order to avoid being deceived in this way, you need to bind the card to your phone number and activate a service that notifies in sms messages about all withdrawals of funds from your card.
Contact without contact
In order to speed up purchases, payment systems have issued cards that allow contactless purchases, i.e. without entering a PIN - code, if your purchase does not exceed the cost of 1000 rubles. Special equipment at the checkout counter of the shopping center debits funds from the card at a distance, notifying with an audible signal that the payment has passed.
Unfortunately, fraudsters have learned how to steal from such cards using contactless portable readers. It is absolutely impossible to calculate who, when and where carried out the theft. A fraudster only needs to get close to you at a distance of up to 20 cm. Such thefts most often occur in queues, buses, at bus stops.
How to protect yourself
In such cases, you need to set the spending limit on your card so that the number of withdrawals of funds is limited, and it is best to carry the card as far as possible, hiding it. After all, the closer the card is to the surface, the more likely it is that money will be stolen from you.
Be vigilant and careful when using your bank card and, if possible, do not store a lot of money on it.
