Credit card fraud. It’s a scary thought – especially when it’s your credit card! If you think that you’ve been the victim of credit card fraud, you should report it. Also, if you work somewhere and think that you are seeing credit card fraud, you should also report it.
In short, report credit card fraud, each and every time you suspect it in any form. There are a lot of people getting away with credit card fraud today, because the people who should report credit card fraud are not doing so.
Some of this could be because they do not know about it until it is too late, but sometimes people do not do it because they are not sure if they really saw it or not, and they don’t want to make trouble for no reason. This is certainly understandable, but a person who is concerned should report card fraud if there is suspicion. It might help protect someone from a lot of financial devastation.
If You Think You Might Be A Victim
You should report credit card fraud right away if you think that you might be a victim. This could include but is certainly not limited to the following kinds of things:
– Bills coming in for credit card accounts that you did not open
– Credit problems on your report with any or all of the three major credit bureaus
– Collection agencies or companies calling you out of the blue when you are not behind on any of your bills, or calling you about accounts you aren’t aware of
– Charges that you did not make showing up on your credit card statements
There are other times , but the reasons above are the most common clues when it comes to this issue. If you report credit card fraud you will not be liable for most (sometimes all) of the charges that were made in your name, but if you wait too long to say anything, you may have to pay the charges even if you did not make them.
In addition, if you don’t report suspicious card activity your credit could be damaged for a long time, and this is difficult to correct, especially when you did not report it in a timely manner.
If You See Someone Else Being Victimized
If you work with the public, you should report credit card fraud if you think that it has taken place. Someone using a credit card without their name on it is a red flag, but there are other things to look for, such as very large purchases at many different stores on the same day, people who simply seem uncomfortable or spend too much time looking around (shifty), and people who hang around checkouts or ATMs, since these could be people who try to take pictures of credit card numbers with their cell phone cameras.
If you report credit card fraud and you are wrong, there is no harm done. If you report it and you are right, you may have saved someone’s financial situation.
