What Is Credit Card Skimming

Do you have the keen eyes to see whether a clerk swiped your credit card into two card readers or just swiping twice in one card ready or not? Would you be able to avoid any upfront thievery in buying gasoline from stations? This type of theft usually comes from the usage of credit card skimmers that operate via stripping and swiping the magnetic strip of credit cards through them just simultaneously when you made a purchase. Smart thieves have devised plans in using these existing credit card strips without being caught of using them. Some of the information that these thieves are able to get from doing this are the card number, account holder name, address of the client and even the pin number that could be used and be accessed on a later time. From this information, thieves are able to make purchases by creating counterfeit and cloned credit cards.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to be able to get credit card skimming machines.

They can be looked for and be bought from the internet at 300 dollars a pop. Any aspiring thief that would like to skim credit cards would not hesitate to dish out 300 dollars to gain more than a few thousand more. It has been estimated that a total of $1 billion each year is lost to credit card theft. If you feel that you have been a victim of a fraud, you should know now that by the Truth in Lending Act, the limits of your liability amount to $50 in the event that your card has been either lost or stolen. But don’t ever think all cardholders do not pay for these petty crimes, because they are entitled to pay lots of finance and miscellaneous fees.

It is very important to track every bit of purchases you have committed from time to time to check whether there are any major discrepancies in the amount that you owe the bank. The sooner you are able to detect any fraudulent activity, the lesser the corresponding damage will be. You have to coordinate and work hand in hand with your bank to prevent any malicious activity related to credit card skimming.