Imagine the following situations:
Someone rummages through your rubbish to find discarded receipts and then uses your account numbers illegally.
A shop keeper keeps a copy of your credit or debit card and then uses it to pay for other transactions.
A mailing asks you to call a long distance number to claim a free prize. You are told to provide your account number to sign up. You do so and are billed for transactions you never made.
Credit card fraud is a huge industry costing consumers and card issuers hundreds of millions of pounds each year. It is a form of theft that is much more discrete than traditional robbery. While it is difficult to completely prevent card fraud from occurring, there are steps you can take to minimize your chances of becoming a victim.
Guard Against Fraud
Here are some tips you can take to help protect yourself from card fraud.
Do:
Sign the back of your cards as soon as they arrive.
Carry your cards separately from your wallet.
Keep your account numbers, expiry dates and company phone numbers and addresses in a safe place.
Watch your card while it is out of your sight during a transaction and seek to get it back quickly.
Destroy incorrect receipts and all carbons.
Compare receipts with your monthly billing statements.
Open your bills and reconcile your account monthly.
Report suspicious activity or charges promptly and in writing to your card issuer.
Notify your card issuer in advance of a change of address.
Don't:
Lend your card to anyone.
Leave your cards or your receipts lying around where others might find them.
Sign blank receipts. If there are blank spaces on a receipt, draw a line through them.
Write your account number on the outside of an envelope or on a postcard.
Give your account number over the phone, unless you have made a call to a company you trust. If you have a question regarding a company, check it out with your local consumer protection office.
Report Losses and Fraud
If your card is stolen or lost, report this immediately to the issuer immediately. Many companies have free emergency numbers specifically for such calls. By law, you have no further responsibility for unauthorized charges once you have reported it. Calling quickly will reduce your liability for unauthorised charges, and will help the card issuer to catch the fraudster or block the transactions, making life harder for the crooks.
Joseph Kenny is the webmaster of the UK credit card comparison site http://www.creditcards121.com/, where you can find a selection of credit card advice. For US visitors there is also the comparison site http://www.credit-cards-info.com/ for all US interest free offers.
What is the punishment for getting caught committing credit card fraud.?
Someone I know got his credit card number stolen. The guy was caught in the act of stealing credit card numbers. I dont know how he stole the credit card information possibly from the credit card company. But anyhow what are the consequences or punishments that this man will get. Will he go to jail, what if he younger than 17 years old? So what kind of sentence will this guy get in the state of NJ being under the age of 18?
More detail please, where can I find out all about this, like the how much are the fines.
Answer
Technically, the feds could take the case over. The punishment varies on a few things: the number of stolen numbers (each one is a separate count) and the offender's record (e.g. if he's done it or other crimes before, he can go away for a longer time).
comments section.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Given that I’ve walked past the newspaper stands twice this week and read about one former UGA student who was recently deported to his home country of India for being the leader of a credit card fraud ring involving other former UGA students and another headline today about a UGA PhD student who conspired with waitstaff to steal credit card information…