ID theft is such a big problem that I want to mention it again here in this post. Not sure if you've heard about the following scam, but if not, you'll want to be prepared. There are people calling unsuspecting victims on the phone posing as credit card fraud investigators. Their purpose? To steal your sensitive credit card account information.
Here's the scam. These fraudsters call and pretend that they're investigating a "questionable" charge that you may want to dispute. As part of the scam, they'll ask you to verify the three-digit security code on the back of your card. As you know, this is a sensitive number and enables anyone who has it, along with your credit card number, to make unauthorized charges to your card. Never give out this number. And note that your credit card company will never ask you for this number.
If you, or someone you know, provided such information, be sure to call the credit card company and explain what happened. Also, if you have any questions, always call the number on the back of your card. And if someone leaves a number on your answering machine, make sure it's that same one on the back of your card. If not, use the number on the card.
ID thieves are very creative...and unfortunately, very successful, especially in this economy. They will employ any means necessary in an effort to separate you from your money and an economic climate like the one we're currently in serves as a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty tricks. This means they'll use deceit or coercion to get information to do bad things. So it behooves us to be mindful of anyone calling us inquiring about such information. Remember, only 1 in 700 of these guys are caught. But if we're aware of such scams, we can help to lessen their success. So, let's do our part to catch these guys.
