These holidays are traditional times to give and receive gifts. That is why it is not surprising that purchases increase a lot, both online and in physical stores. Many days come together in which many Christmas shopping for food, gifts and more are made. But things are not over here yet, because then come the kings and the January sales, so it is a long shopping period. Cybercriminals know of our wishes and prepare scams to obtain some profit. In most of them the credit card is the protagonist. In this article we are going to see how you can protect yourself from skimming scams this holiday season.
Without a doubt we are in a traditional era, in which we are happier and also in which we spend more money on the people we love the most. The problem is that cybercriminals take advantage of skimming scams at the expense of our credit and debit cards.
Card skimming and what to do if we suffer it
Card skiming can be accomplished through many procedures. Generally, this type of fraud is carried out at ATMs or at the point of sale. Skimming scams, in essence, seek to obtain credit or debit card information along with the PIN in a fraudulent way. Generally this type of criminal activity is carried out by installing a small secondary device in an ATM.
On the other hand, this type of scam is spreading to also affect anyone with a card that has contactless payment capabilities. These types of cards are the most common right now, so you have to be very attentive. However, it should also be noted that it can be produced online and cost us a good sum of money.
In the event that we suspect that we may be the victim of a skimming scam, we will act as follows. Banks usually have an app where we can check the transactions we carry out with a credit card sample. If we observe any unauthorized charges we will inform our bank immediately. The fraud managers of our bank will ask us if we still have the card or have we lost it. We answer to our interlocutor from the bank that we have it and that means that it is very likely that we have been victims of card skiming. You may be interested in how to avoid fraud when buying on eBay.
How to protect yourself from these scams
We have already commented that this type of fraud also occurs on the Internet and this is where we are going to start. In the network of networks there are many small companies completely legal with their respective web pages. However, there are also quite a few fake pages designed to steal our money, send us nothing, or send us a simple cheap knockoff.
The first thing we have to do is check that it is a secure connection, but this does not mean that the web is secure, but that communication with said web is done safely, it is not the same. In this regard, the URL must start with https: // instead of just http: // and it must also have a small padlock icon in the address bar of our browser that means that the site has an SSL certificate. A page can have https and be malicious, so we must be very careful and not go to “strange” web pages, and it would even be advisable to carry out other checks.
We should also calmly check the URL to check that it matches the company where we want to make our purchases. Sometimes they modify a URL enough to make it look legitimate, while redirecting us to the attacker’s website so they can steal our information and money.
On the other hand, you have to carefully check the ATMs and those of other means of payment. For example, in ATMs, try to cover the keyboard with your hand so that the PIN is not seen in case there is a camera recording. We should also pay attention to things that seem strange like:
- Bulky card scanners.
- Cameras with holes designed to steal PIN numbers and loose keyboards.
- Flashes hidden within the card slot that would be invisible unless we looked directly inward.
We have already discussed contactless cards as a starting point for skimming scams. These types of cards use a radio frequency identification (RFID) signal. In most circumstances your signal is transmitted at a distance between 4 and 10 centimeters. For this reason, a cybercriminal could use an RFID scanner in the direction of your wallet, and for example, in the middle of the bustle of public transport, take advantage of your credit card.
Also, to avoid skimming scams, a good idea could be to buy an RFID protective sleeve for our credit card.
Finally, whether online or in a physical store, try to act with caution when using your credit cards so as not to be victims of skimming.
