|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 Who’s got your number? One of life’s more unpleasant surprises: You open your monthly charge or credit card bill and find a charge – or several, or many! – from merchants whose names and locations you don’t recognize. Your natural reaction is to grab for your wallet to check the cards. What a relief! Your cards are safe, each securely housed in the compartment where you left it. So the strange items on your bill must have been a simple mistake. A call to the card issuer should set things right in no time. Wrong. Sadly, as have so many before you, you’ve entered the world of charge/credit card fraud. Some sharp-eyed thief with a good memory for numbers has stolen yours and used them, leaving the cards themselves behind so you wouldn’t become suspicious immediately. With the cards still in your wallet, you had no idea they were being used fraudulently. This story is not unusual, particularly during a time of year when so many people are vacationing. But it does illustrate the importance of safeguarding your card and Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) as vigilantly as you guard the plastic itself. In the United States, the law protects consumers against liability when their cards are used fraudulently. However, clearing up a fraud involves time, red tape and aggravation. As with so many other things in life, prevention works best here. So you’ll want to take the following precautions to avoid unauthorized use of your number. To protect your number Shield your credit card from people around you when making purchases at stores. Many thieves can spot and retain your number during the few seconds it takes you to replace the card in your wallet. Don’t relegate your monthly billing statements to the “to do” pile. Instead, take a quick look inside when they arrive to make sure each charge is one you made. If you see something you don’t recognize, report it to your card issuer immediately. Total every charge slip before signing it. Blank spaces are invitations for thieves to add additional amounts. Never sign a blank credit card slip. Transactions over the telephone Unless you have initiated the call yourself, don’t share your account number with anyone over the phone. Personal Identification (PIN) Numbers Choose a PIN number you can easily memorize. Don’t write it on your credit card or somewhere in your wallet where a fraud can find it, because anyone who does can use it to make cash withdrawals from your account at an automated teller machine. If the card itself disappears Of course, if you find that the plastic itself is gone from your wallet, you should report the loss to the card issuer immediately, so that a “stop” can be put on the card and a replacement card ordered for you. Additional information on this and other consumer issues can be found on the Web site of the Federal Trade Commission. July 26, 2001
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright (c) 2000 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved. Users of this site agree to be bound by the terms of the American Express Web Site Rules and Regulations. View Web Site Rules and Regulations and trademarks and Privacy Statement of American Express. See Corporate Entities and Important Disclosures for additional information about the American Express entities who offer products and services on americanexpress.com. American Express Brokerage is offered by American Express Financial Advisors Inc., Member NASD and SIPC. American Express Company is separate from American Express Financial Advisors Inc. and is not a broker dealer. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
