Protecting Your Personal Information
We all know that criminals are out there, waiting to steal our credit card information. These
very criminals want credit card information so they can run up the charges then leave you holding the bags - with
nothing to show for it. Even though some are local, most credit card criminals are in far away lands. Worse than
that, they like to hide or go by other names so it’s virtually impossible to track them down.
The most common way for criminals to get credit card information is through phishing, which involves a fake
email that appears to be sent from your credit card company. Normally, this fake email states that there was an
error with your account, or that it was accessed by unauthorized personnel and needs your attention.
Spotting fake emails isn’t hard to do - as long as you know what to look for. The most obvious hint for most, is
the fact that they don’t even have a credit card from the company that has sent the email. For others, the link is
what gives the fake email away. Anytime you get an email from a credit card that you believe to be fake, you should
always hover your mouse over the link, then “right click” the link with the mouse and select “view source”. If the
link is indeed fake, the website address that comes up will be something other than that of a credit card
company.
The criminals don’t want you to look at the source for their website, as they simply want you to click on the
link before you look at anything else. Once you have clicked on the link, you’ll arrive at a website that is
usually an exact copy of a credit card website. Fake sites normally include everything that the actual site does,
including the logos and banners. Even for the most amateur of credit card criminals, web pages like this are very
easy to create.
Those of you who have fell victim to this scam, probably realized what you have done little too late. Once you
have entered in your credit card information, you have done exactly what the criminals wanted and put yourself in
violation of credit card fraud and identity theft. Once the criminal has your
social security number and credit card information, he is more than likely to use that information to go on a
shopping spree - stealing your money and running up your account.
If you receive an email such as this, you should always delete it. Even if you just click on the fake website to
investigate, you may do more harm than good. Even though you may not enter any information at all, your computer
may get infected with viruses or spyware simply because you clicked on the link. To avoid this altogether, you
should never click on a link that you believe to be a fake credit card company website.
If you do your part and protect your credit card information, you won’t have anything at all to
worry about. Your personal information is very important, as you never want it to fall in the wrong hands. As long
as you protect it, you won’t have anything to worry about. There are always criminals out there, which is why you
should always be on guard. Criminals want your personal information and your credit card numbers - it’s up to you
to ensure that they don’t get it. A criminal will do anything to get what they want, which is why protecting
yourself is so very important these days.
Credit in Minutes Tip #1
Stay on top of your credit report. Most credit reports contain errors. Make sure you check your credit report
every year (you get one free credit report every twelve months) and if there are errors make sure to challenge them
with the reporting credit agency. Credit agencies are required to investigate each and every challenge that gets
reported.
Credit in Minutes Tip
#2
Just because you qualify for all of those credit cards does not mean you should get them. A person with too many
credit cards looks sketchy in the eyes of a potential creditor. Think of it this way: if a person is financially
stable does he or she need ten different credit cards? Wouldn’t just one or two suffice?
Credit in Minutes Tip
#3
The best way to raise your credit score is to make all of your payments on time. It sounds too simple to be
true, but that’s all there really is to it. Staying out of debt and/or making all of your debt payments on time
will keep your score up where it should be.
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