1 In 10 Effected By Id Theft

[Fidgits]

And that number is from a largely tech savvy sample

Over 10 per cent of silicon.com readers either know or suspect they have been the victim of identity theft in their lives online, highlighting this increasingly common crime.

Results of a survey of 1,067 readers conducted in December revealed 114 - or 10.7 per cent, answering Yes to the question 'Do you believe your identity has ever been stolen online?'

ID theft commonly involves crooks finding personal data about individuals, for example from old receipts or discarded bank statements, using that to gain other personal credentials and then making transactions or buying goods in the unsuspecting person's name.

While details are by no means harvested solely online - bin raiding is a common starting point - illegal transactions are frequently facilitated by the internet.

However, 44 per cent of respondents also said they have received an email 'phishing' for personal information.

In recent months phishing scams - so called because they trawl for personal data such as bank accounts numbers, passwords, ATM PINs and more - have become common. Customers of mainstream banks have been targeted, as have users of services such as eBay and PayPal.

But while just two-thirds of survey respondents say they have been on the receiving end - the phishing emails are typically spam sent to millions of accounts - only 66 per cent said they had heard of the practice. 27.6 said they hadn't and a further 6.4 per cent said they weren't sure.

full story here

[Scorpion]

I am guilty of being paranoid on this subject,i never let my C/Card out of my sight

when paying for things especially at restaurants where the waiter goes off to

run the card through the machine,with me in hot pursuit behind him

I also adopt the same paranioa with junk mail,bank statements and the like that

floods through the letterbox,so i bought a shredding machine for piece of mind,and

the same with telephone calls from "the bank"selling insurances,mortgages and other

plans and services.......i just tell them to put it into a letter and send me the details,

only to be shredded.

[Fidgits]

I also adopt the same paranioa with junk mail,bank statements and the like that

floods through the letterbox,so i bought a shredding machine for piece of mind,and

the same with telephone calls from "the bank"selling insurances,mortgages and other

plans and services.......i just tell them to put it into a letter and send me the details,

only to be shredded.

I'm the same with the Shredder (well, i needed one for corporate documents etc), but any old statements, junk mail, goes through it before being thrown away...

[Zee007]

Couple of points (being that I work in the Financial industry - for a Credit Card Company)....

A fact that most people are unaware of is: It is SAFER to use your card on a Secure site online than to give it out over the telephone....

Secondly, we (the Credit Card industry) are working hard to test and prove the new chip technology that should reduce fraudulant use of cards by encypting data (as proven in Continental Europe)..... This will dramatically reduce the fraud by statements/old reciepts etc......

On a final note - remember that you are covered by fraudulant use on your Credit Card under the Banking Code (Ombudsmen) so in theory, you shouldn't be too worried......

[Scorpion]

I hardly ever check my statement.....i just pay it!

[Fidgits]

A fact that most people are unaware of is: It is SAFER to use your card on a Secure site online than to give it out over the telephone....

I would just like to add the following additions to this point:

1. Where Zee says 'Secure site' online, this is easily recognised. If a web page is asking for personel details/credit card details, look on the bottom right corner (next to the globe/internet logo), there should be a padlock (depending on browser- padlock refers to IE)

2. Assuming the site itself is genuine.

But as Zee said, as long as its a reputable company, and it is offering a 'secure connection' then it should be okay. The transaction uses Public Key technology, and generally uses 1024-bit keys (this means a unique number 1024 numbers long).

However, if you have the option NOT to store your credit card for future use, i would reccomend selecting this option, as the weakest link in the e-commerce system is the database..

[GRiM]

I hardly ever check my statement.....i just pay it!

Pete,

Based on my experience, I would suggest that you should...

That's how I discovered that £125 had been stolen from my credit card. Someone has used my details online, on some US internet gambling site. What initially drew my attention was the transactions appeared in $dollars on my statement.

When I contacted the credit card company about it, they first suspected someone in my family. I then went on to the internet site in question to find out the IP address used when the transactions went through. But I had to eventually call the company in the US to get the IP address.

When I told the credit card company that the IP address was not mine, and appeared to be based in the US, they quickly became my best friend, offered to immediately cancel the dodgy transactions and sent me a new credit card.

Since then I check my statement every month. Very thoroughly.

Can I also suggest for Interent Explorer users:-

From the menu.

Go into Tools/Internet Options

Select the Advanced tab

Scroll down until under Security, you find and option called

Do not save encrypted pages to disk

and put a tick in the box against it.

Then click OK

That way any transaction you process on IE will not keep a copy locally on your PC, that could potentially be hacked.

[Zee007]

Can I also suggest for Interent Explorer users:-

From the menu.

Go into Tools/Internet Options

Select the Advanced tab

Scroll down until under Security, you find and option called

Do not save encrypted pages to disk

and put a tick in the box against it.

The click OK

That way any transaction you process on IE will not keep a copy locally on your PC, that could potentially be hacked. 

Excellent piece of advice..........

[Scorpion]

Grim,i know i should!!

Thanks for the tip on the tool bar as well.......just done it.

[tdiplc]

What I think stinks is that the banks hardly ever have to cough up for card fraud, it is normally the already hard pressed merchant/shop that gets a charge back.

Add that to the reams of additional taxes, charges and administration that small business's have to cope with, and you can see why less and less people want to get involved.

[Zee007]

What I think stinks is that the banks hardly ever have to cough up for card fraud, it is normally the already hard pressed merchant/shop that gets a charge back.

Add that to the reams of additional taxes, charges and administration that small business's have to cope with, and you can see why less and less people want to get involved.

Very surprised to hear that the merchants get stung so badly - I understand the chargeback process, but my understanding of Banking regulations and Chargeback Rules was such that the transaction would be investigated by Visa/Europay ALONG WITH the Merchant for it to be resolved......

[tdiplc]

What I think stinks is that the banks hardly ever have to cough up for card fraud, it is normally the already hard pressed merchant/shop that gets a charge back.

Add that to the reams of additional taxes, charges and administration that small business's have to cope with, and you can see why less and less people want to get involved.

Very surprised to hear that the merchants get stung so badly - I understand the chargeback process, but my understanding of Banking regulations and Chargeback Rules was such that the transaction would be investigated by Visa/Europay ALONG WITH the Merchant for it to be resolved......

Take a look at a contract Zee.

The banks have the vendors by the short and curlies :o

The contract is a prime contender for the new "Unfair Contracts" legislation

[Zee007]

Take a look at a contract Zee.

The banks have the vendors by the short and curlies :o

The contract is a prime contender for the new "Unfair Contracts" legislation

A contract between whom Mark?

Is this between a merchant and a bank (ie HSBC, NatWest, Barclays etc) or Visa/Europay?

[Steve]

i recently had a merchants account and had a chargeback... i had to pay the 1.8% fee from a £1000 transaction... plus additional fees

[tdiplc]

i recently had a merchants account and had a chargeback... i had to pay the 1.8% fee from a £1000 transaction... plus additional fees

I'd say you were lucky mate ;)

If they were written in plain English, the contracts would say something like:

1) You are liable for any fraudulent use of the card.

2) Even if we give you a "code 10" authorisation, we reserve the right to change our mind.

3) We will charge back to you via direct debit any claims from the card holder.

4) We don't care if you use another bank because we are all the same.

5) You need us - we don't need you.

[Zee007]

4) We don't care if you use another bank because we are all the same.

Sorry Mark - have to disagree....... There is no way whatsoever that banks associate themselves with one another.....

[DaveEllen]

cheers Grim

just done it

[tdiplc]

4) We don't care if you use another bank because we are all the same.

Sorry Mark - have to disagree....... There is no way whatsoever that banks associate themselves with one another.....

I know what you are trying to say Zee, but funny how the Merchant Agreements are all the same (the parts that are of interest to the Merchant) from bank to bank

[GRiM]

cheers Grim

just done it

Of course Dave, to keep you totally secure, just send me a PM with your details and I keep them safe for you.

Honest

[Zee007]

4) We don't care if you use another bank because we are all the same.

Sorry Mark - have to disagree....... There is no way whatsoever that banks associate themselves with one another.....

I know what you are trying to say Zee, but funny how the Merchant Agreements are all the same (the parts that are of interest to the Merchant) from bank to bank

Fair comment - why re-invent the wheel........

[tdiplc]

4) We don't care if you use another bank because we are all the same.

Sorry Mark - have to disagree....... There is no way whatsoever that banks associate themselves with one another.....

I know what you are trying to say Zee, but funny how the Merchant Agreements are all the same (the parts that are of interest to the Merchant) from bank to bank

Fair comment - why re-invent the wheel........

The bits that are the same are the ones that make the poor battered Merchant cough up for any fraudulent card use etc - you won't see any banks paying for that ;)

To be fair though and for parity of the subject, the banks do have to pay when they are jointly liable for a Merchant's debt who has gone bust, even if the card holder only paid £300 on their card for a £10,000 purchase the bank is liable for the full £10,000. That doesn't seem fair to me either.

Don't worry Zee I still love ya - even if you do work for a bank :)

[jac114]

Last year I had my card used online to buy underwear from figleaf.com They had the womans (supposed name) and delivery address in london .. My bank called them and confirmed all of this and I got my money back. 2 transactions..£140.00 when I rang back figleaf.com to asked what would happen now I.e would they get the police involved and try to get there money back , they just said " No its o.k we are covered by our insurance who will pay us out" I ask you what sort of detterent is this .. so up go our premiums again because even when companys have details about this sort of fraud they cannot be ****d to sort it out they would rather claim off there insurance...

craig

[tdiplc]

Last year I had my card used online to buy underwear from figleaf.com They had the womans (supposed name) and delivery address in london .. My bank called them and confirmed all of this and I got my money back. 2 transactions..£140.00 when I rang back figleaf.com to asked what would happen now I.e would they get the police involved and try to get there money back , they just said " No its o.k we are covered by our insurance who will pay us out" I ask you what sort of detterent is this .. so up go our premiums again because even when companys have details about this sort of fraud they cannot be ****d to sort it out they would rather claim off there insurance...

craig

You'll probably find that what they mean is "it's ok well get repaid by the Merchant".

The Police don't care either. Several times a month we get attempts at people using stolen card details to buy things by mail order. Normally the addresses are in Birmingham, Leicester or Bradford, we phone the police with the address details etc but they couldn't be less interested

[Zee007]

The Police don't care either. Several times a month we get attempts at people using stolen card details to buy things by mail order. Normally the addresses are in Birmingham, Leicester or Bradford, we phone the police with the address details etc but they couldn't be less interested

I think you'll find that the adresses are fake too Mark - that's usually why the Police don't bother...... It's a known fact that fraudulant CC users will not disclose their real address!

[tony_hetherington]

I am very naive in this subject, so please excuse me if I'm asking a dumb question......

but how would the fraudulent users gain anything if they don't reveal their real address? Do they get stuff sent to a fake address and then go pick it up? Or is it all just "virtual" money, i.e. nothing physical ever gets exchanged ?

Just curious to know.....

ta