SALT LAKE CITY — We all know the famous eight: Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.
But this holiday season, the last thing you want is a criminal dashing and prancing away with your Christmas cash, “blitzen” their way through your bank account at the speed of a comet!
That’s a punny way to put it, but this time of year is when we see a spike in credit card fraud.
“We’re all looking for a deal during the holidays,” says Al Pascaul, the CEO of Scamnetic. “We’re all looking for the things our kids really want, things we want to get for significant others. When there are deals that seem too good to be true or merchants that may have things that no one else has, that’s the moment we need to stop and think as to whether or not putting it on my credit card is a good idea.”
The fear isn’t only that you’ll end up with a fake or counterfeit item when you put in your payment info.
You may not end up with anything at all.
“They’re setting us up,” says Pascual. “Long story short, they want you to put the credit card in so they can capture that data, go on and use the cards elsewhere.”
But if you’re familiar with these swindlers’ reindeer games, you can better avoid handing over your personal information.
“It’s going to be safe if you shop at merchants that you know. It’s going to be even safer if you’re using their app as opposed to going to their sites, because criminals will spoof legitimate sites,” says Pascual. “There are tools out there that are very easy to use that let them basically choose a site, copy it and get it online very quickly and then they actually do promote it on things like Google.”
If you find yourself wanting to chance a merchant you’ve never shopped, consider this:
“I would use a virtual credit card number,” says Pascual. “A lot of issuers, especially larger ones, have this available. You typically go to their site, you sign up for one and it’s something that you could use and basically throw away.”
If or when you notice any fraudulent charges, as always, reach out to your bank.
They can tell you what your next steps should be.
“Very often the issuer is going to tell you, ‘Have you spoken to the merchant?’ They’re going to ask you that even if you never did business with them,” says Pascual. “They may try to push it back to the merchant, so if the merchant is reachable, I do suggest contacting them. You can learn more information, they can make the whole process better, easier, faster.”
Using a debit card is a bit different than using your credit card and time is of the essence if you find fraud on your debit card.
Pascual says there are limits to the amount of time you have after a fraudulent transaction to notify your bank.
If you fail to meet the time requirement, you could be liable for fines worth hundreds of dollars.
