Skimming May Be The Latest Threat To Your Credit Card

Credit card skimming is causing an international problem which accounts for losses of over one billion dollars a year.It is more commonly used in Europe, Asia and Latin America, however, this particular type of credit card scam is starting to be used in the United States.

It can be easy to run a credit card scam, such as this, when you give your credit card to a store employee in order to make a purchase.That store employee may also be swiping your card with a small machine known as a skimmer as well as using it to pay for your purchase; this skimmer takes your information from your card and stores it in this machine’s system to use fraudulently.This skimmer is equipped to hold information on virtually hundreds of credit cards, and from this information the crooks are able to produce counterfeit credit or debit cards.After your information has been fed into the skimmer it can then be downloaded into a computer and emailed to any worldwide location, as there are skimming rings working all over the world.About ten years ago it was not as easy to accomplish this fraud as it can be today, because the skimmers were large, bulky machines which had to be hidden under the counter in the store.

Due to the great advancements in technology of the past decade, the skimmer is streamlined and the small hand-held machine is easy to hide from the view of the unknowing customer.These skimmers are easy to buy; they can be purchased over the internet at around three hundred dollars, but the machine needed to make counterfeit credit cards is a much larger investment; costing in a neighborhood from five thousand to ten thousand dollars.

Another form of skimming is done by placing a skimmer bug directly into the credit card terminals and then retrieving it later with credit card information on it.With the introduction of the newer credit card terminals, this bugging scam is no longer the problem it can be with the older terminals which are much easier to violate in this way.

As soon as the credit card skimmers have confiscated all of the information they need from your card, they will begin to make purchases of their choice with your credit card number.Over half of credit card fraud is committed over the internet, with shopping by this method becoming more and more popular, card fraud on the internet has also increased.The information skimming thieves will check the credit card information for it’s validity is by making several purchases of low cost items on internet websites to find out if the cards are active.

The cardholder is one victim of this crime and is responsible for up to fifty dollars of the total amount charged on his card, however, the major victim in all of this is the merchant whose employee did the skimming.The merchant is at risk for the loss on his merchandise and is one hundred percent responsible for the skimmer’s activities and the fees charged for the investigation.The money used by the credit card companies to offset the cost of investigating charge-back claims by their customers, comes from the investigation fees paid by consumers using credit and businesses.

Those who do this skimming scam operation know that a purchase of at least $2000 must be made before a criminal investigation can begin.

Article Source: http://www.articlemonk.com

Alisdair Cosgrove is a freelance writer specializing in personal finance. You can read more of his work at www.JSNet.org for credit card comparisons including low interest credit cards and also offers a comprehensive list of hotel rewards credit cards. You can read more about credit cards from his on site article, 'searching for the best credit card offer'.

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