Knowing what the latest credit card scam is can help you to understand why the merchants ask the questions they do when making a purchase. Rather than getting miffed by those questions you will appreciate the merchant's challenge with providing the customer with credit card services while not getting taken by scam artists. To better understand those challenges read the scam page on the Fraud Watch. See this link to “Fraud Watch” about the latest credit card scams being employed to obtain your personal security information. Here is one scam involving the three digit number on the rear of your credit card.

3 Digit Security Number on Back of Card

By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself. Those con artists get more creative every day. The scam works like this:  Person calling says, "this is (name) and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12345. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by bank XYZ. Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing company based in Arizona?"  When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account.  Before your next statement, "the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?" You say "yes." Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller then says, "we need to verify you are in possession of your card."  He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are your card prefix, the next 3 are the 'Security Numbers' that verify you are in possession of the card.  Read me the 3 numbers."  After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct. I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?"  You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number.  What the scammer wants is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card.  Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or MasterCard direct.  If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement, you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost to late and/or harder to actually file a fraud report.

Here is another scam, this one is a spoofing site issue used to get money or credit card information from you during an Internet purchase. For those doing a lot of purchases on the Internet this is a good one to know. I did click on the link below but did not end up at the page the writer intended so this link doesn’t really work although if you have more time than I did you may be able to locate the plugin on the ActivIDentity site.

At last, a Real-time shield against "Pfishing" scams! We have come across a FREE toolbar plugin for Internet Explorer that can help protect you against the increasing threat of "Pfishing" scams.  Here is how it works:  The toolbar resolves the actual name of the site you are on, so if you click on an email from your Bank, PayPal, or vendor, it will let you know if you are REALLY there, or on a "spoof" site.  We tried this with an email we received last week: Link to images. [What they have you do is read the URL address at the top of the page. The example they give is that if you think you're on the Pay Pal site the URL should be "PAYPAL.com" and not some number. That's easy enough to do and to remember.]

As you can see, the toolbar correctly identified the REAL PayPal site, as well as the phony one, which was operating with just an IP address.  You can download this toolbar free at: www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/ .  Of course, if you are using PayPal, you have other things to worry about (see article above)