Prevent the Grinch from stealing your credit card information

The Grinch is trolling department stores this season in the hopes that he can steal a credit card or two. With consumer’s purchasing behavior straying away from their usual habits during the holidays, it makes it even easier for the Grinch to commit credit card fraud. While credit union members should keep their eye out for the Grinch and his accomplices, they should take some additional steps to keep their accounts secure this season. Here are 3 ways members can allude holiday fraudsters this season.

Check Recent Activity

When buying holiday gifts, members’ spending will go up and their purchases will likely not fall in the trend of their usual buying habits. Therefore, members should regularly check their account activity. A situation that happens often is those who lose, drop or misplace their credit card while holiday shopping. If a member goes shopping at the mall – spending quite a bit of money on gifts for friends and family, but somewhere along the way they lose their card, someone else can use it to buy their holiday gifts too. In this case, the transactions might not flag as fraudulent activity because the member was making legitimate purchases at the location before the card was compromised. It is very important members check their recent transaction history so if fraud occurs it can be caught early.

 

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