Forum32 - Arjun - Credit card scam

You have seen 50 episodes of Arjun – Har Yug Mein Aayega Ek with crime investigation that takes place in varied spaces and spheres. They have had stories based in Delhi, Jaipur, Goa and Mumbai. The action thriller, that is one of its kind on Indian Television, is unique in terms of story, action sequences or even personal journey each character will go through.

This Sunday, 10th February 2013, the story revolves around a dead foreigner and his credit card use found under mysterious circumstances. This is where the ETF Team steps it. ACP Sameer Rathore (Behzaad Khan), Arjun Suryakant Rawte (Shaleen Malhotra), Shreekant Sen (Siddharth Sen), Aayesha Kapoor (Shital Shah) and Chhotu (Ketan Karande) will unearth the reason for his death and who or how was his credit card used. Is this a mere one-off incident or is there a scam they will find running, is something you will have to watch the show to know; however what we want to bring to you is some awareness on how to keep your credit card from being abused.

Credit card is a convenience. Plastic money as people call it. The invention of it was to create safety for the card holder. Cash used to be stolen and to carry a large sum of money is cumbersome and hazardous. So there were drafts and traveller's cheques. But to make that happen was also a process. Credit card gave you the flexibility of using it anytime, anywhere, anyhow. And pay for that convenience at a later stage. But we are not going to talk about banking here. We are going to talk about various types of credit card frauds that one needs to be aware of and protect oneself from being a victim.

1. Restaurants – when you give you credit card to pay for your meal, do you know if the card details have been taken down only to be used later perhaps for personal gain? Well, our suggestion is to keep a card of smaller limits for such transactions where your card leaves your hands for any duration of time.

2. Internet Transactions – How safe is your card from being cloned when you have bought that item at a bargain price from a website and later on find that the card was used again? Always buy from sites that have encryption of the credit card details for your safety.

3. Phishing mails – One of the most common frauds where your card details are asked via a form by "bank" when in reality a bank never asks details over an email or even in person.

4. Telephone fraud – You have called in to book ticket/buy car insurance/ or any product or service to a call center and give your credit card details for payment. A representative will never ask for your CVV number, so if anyone asks you, do not give it as transactions on a software are devised to be handled with only your credit card number and the expiration date.

5. Triangulation – Have you bought something online only to be asked to be paid by an email? Once the details of your card is gone the "merchant" you are billed for not the price promised on the said site but perhaps much higher. And when you try to locate the "merchant" who committed the fraud, they perhaps might not exist anymore.

6. RFID Credit Cards – Is your card a Radio Frequency Identification Systems (RFID) enabled, which allows a hands free register at the check out counter to read the credit card from a distance of 18 inches. So if a thief is to carry an RFID scanner and passes by your purse or wallet, your credit card information will be taken and misused once the data is transferred. The way to save your cards, if they are RFID generation one is by using aluminum foil to line your purse or wallet. Alternatively now you get wallets that are so called RFID scanner proof.