How to Protect Yourself From Credit Card Theft
How to Protect Yourself From Credit Card Theft
By Emily Guy Birken February 3 2020
Last fall, I received an email that appeared to be from my web host. The email claimed that there was a problem with my payment information and asked me to update it. I clicked on the link in the email and entered my credit card number, thinking that a recent change I'd made to my site must have caused a problem.
The next morning, I logged onto my credit card account to find two large unauthorized purchases. A scammer had successfully phished my payment information from me.
This failure of security is pretty embarrassing for a personal finance writer. I know better than to click through an email link claiming to be from my bank, credit card lender, or other financial institution. But because the email came from a source that wasn't specifically financial (and because I was thinking about the changes I had made to my website just the day before), I let myself get played.
Thankfully, because I check my credit card balance daily, the scammers didn't get away with it. However, it's better to be proactive about avoiding credit card theft so you're not stuck with the cleanup, which took me several months to complete.
Here's how you can protect yourself from credit card theft.
Protecting Your Physical Credit Card
Stealing your physical credit or debit card is in some respects the easiest way for a scammer to get their hands on your sweet, sweet money. With the actual card in hand, a scammer has all the information they need to make fraudulent purchases: the credit card number, expiration date, and the security code on the back.
That means keeping your physical cards safe is one of the best ways to protect yourself from credit card theft. Don't carry more cards than you intend to use. Having every card you own in a bulging wallet makes it more likely someone could steal one when you're not paying attention and you may not realize it's gone if you have multiple cards.
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6 Common Excuses for Not Saving Money By Tara Struyk
Have you ever settled on a new exercise program, only to get a bad cold a few days in and happily throw yourself on the couch, relieved to have a handy excuse? Excuses must be human nature; I know I usually make them when I'm facing something that’s new, that's hard, or that I just don’t enjoy. And I’ve certainly made excuses when it comes to money.
In the years that I’ve been writing about personal finance and investing, I’ve also heard my fair share of excuses, mostly from readers who don’t agree with my advice. The problem is, unlike good financial habits, excuses are easy to come by, even though most of them just don’t stand up to reason. Check out some of the ones I’ve heard most frequently so far.