When using your credit card at any merchant, be it over the phone, on the internet or in person, there are several security precautions that need to be taken to ensure that you will not fall a victim to credit card fraud or identity theft.

Today, all credit cards come with some security features that are designed to deter fraud. One of the most widely used is the card security value, also called CVV or CVV2. This is normally a 3 digit number found on the back of the card above the signature, or a 4 digit code printed on the front of your card for American Express cards. It is commonly requested by merchants on the internet to prove that the person making a purchase actually has the card with them.

Another feature that is gaining more popularity with merchants on the Internet is a verification scheme such as Verified by Visa. In addition to providing the card number, expiry date and CVV code, a person making a purchase would be required to enter a password that they obtained previously by identifying some personal information that only the legitimate cardholder should know, such as their date of birth, credit limit, or amount of their last payment.

MasterCard offer an extra verification process called “secure code”. This code behaves like a PIN number at ATM except you will be required to enter your personally selected security code when you make credit card payments in person or online. This protect you if your credit card is stolen, the thief would not know your code and therefore not be able to use your card details.

Some tips to protect the security of your credit card:

• Only give out your card number to trusted merchants, and beware of “phishing” emails, which are emails that impersonate banks and trick you into entering your card number and other personal information into a “fake” website, which is then used to commit fraud.
• When doing purchases in person, avoid leaving your card out of sight. For example, some unscrupulous waiters in restaurants have been known to write down credit card numbers of clients and later use them to commit fraud.
• Always pay attention to your card’s monthly statement. If you see any charges that you do not recognize, contact your bank immediately.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Credit Card Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.