Jill's Blog

Jill, old enough not to want to give away her age, is mother to four demanding daughters that keep her on her toes when it comes to anything retail and beauty related.

Jill much prefers shopping online to fighting the masses instore and her favourite websites include EveLom.co.uk, OkaDirect.com, TimeToSpa.co.uk, Inverawe.co.uk and FormanAndField.com (the latter two keep the men in the family smiling!).

Oops I’ve Been Cloned – Again!

Published on Tuesday 19th February 2008

I‘m in a bit of a grump today as I’m severely restricted in the amount of shopping I can do due to the fact that I’ve had my credit card, to use bank speak, ‘compromised’. This is the third time it has happened to me and it’s making me pretty twitchy.

I’ve spent this morning surfing for advice on how to prevent this happening. One of the first things I’m going to do is have one card which is solely used for the purpose of buying online – that way I’ll at least have an idea, if it happens again, as to whether it’s happening as a result of offline or online spending.

My research has thrown up a few helpful sites, the first being CreditChoices.co.uk that has a section called 10 tips to avoiding credit card fraud.

Whilst when I read the tips I thought they all just sounded like common sense it is possible that at some stage I might have dropped a receipt or forgot to shred everything when clearing out a bag and just put all the rubbish straight in the bin.

This site also has links to other useful areas – such as Cardwatch.org.uk. And did you know that there’s a department that has been set up called ‘The dedicated cheque and Plastic crime unit’? They too have a website, DCPCU.org.uk which has some helpful tips.

I then went onto the MasterCard website - it was remarkably unhelpful except to tell me that I would be covered in the event of a lost or stolen card, but nowhere did it tell me about a card that was still in my possession that had been cloned so... 2 out of 10 for that site! HSBC’s site was much more helpful I must say.

Finally I trawled through a list of credit card suppliers and I’m happy to say that Egg, Capital One and Mint all offer a free online fraud service with Egg offering a dedicated case manager. So I know where I’m getting my new credit card from.

Do learn from me and do what you can to prevent credit card fraud.

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