{"id":371,"date":"2011-12-11T19:04:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T03:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=371"},"modified":"2017-09-27T14:56:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:56:30","slug":"what-to-do-about-debit-card-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"What to do about debit card fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>What is debit card fraud?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Debit card fraud usually begins when a thief swipes the magnetic strip on the back of your card and create a duplicate of your card.\u00a0 The thief is said to &#8216;skim&#8217; your card. To be able to steal money from your account, they also must capture your PIN.\u00a0 The most efficient do this all at one time &#8211; either at a fake ATM or at a vendor&#8217;s checkout.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How do you avoid debit card fraud?<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your debit card is the key to your account(s) &#8211; it&#8217;s for your personal use only. Employ safe debit card use habits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep your card in a safe place and never lend it to anyone.<\/li>\n<li>Do not type your PIN at Gas station or unattended Debit machines &#8211; it is better to use the debit card as a credit card for these transactions<\/li>\n<li>Protect your PIN \u2013 it\u2019s your electronic signature. Don&#8217;t write it down \u2013 memorize it. Change it.<\/li>\n<li>When selecting a PIN, always avoid the obvious: your name, telephone number, date of birth, and address. Make sure your PIN cannot be easily guessed.<\/li>\n<li>Never disclose your PIN to anyone. No one needs to know it. Change it often.<\/li>\n<li>If you are uncomfortable about using the machine for any reason, do it later or go to another location. If anything seems unusual about don&#8217;t use it.<\/li>\n<li>To ensure privacy, use your hand or body as a shield to\u00a0 enter your PIN.<\/li>\n<li>After completing a transaction, remember to take your card and your transaction record.<\/li>\n<li>If your card is lost, stolen or retained by the ATM notify your financial institution immediately.<\/li>\n<li>Regularly review transaction history online and report unusual transactions immediately.<\/li>\n<li>Beware of all e-mail messages claiming to be from your financial institution. In many reported cases of fraud, individuals will receive e-mail from what appears to be their bank asking them to click on a link included in the message. If you click on the link, you are brought to a fraudulent web site that looks just like your bank\u2019s website. This is known as &#8216;phising&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Once it happens &#8211; what should you do?<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Report it to the financial institution immediately. They will take several steps to ensure that your account is protected.\u00a0 Immediately changing your PIN would be a good place to start.<\/p>\n<p>2. Contact the credit bureau and have a fraud alert placed on your reports &#8211; if the financial institution does not do that immediately.\u00a0 The three are equifax, transunion, and experian.<\/p>\n<p>3. Contact the police, if you&#8217;ve not done so already.<\/p>\n<p>4. Make a formal debit card fraud report with the anti-fraud group at the Office of the Controller of the Currency at www.occ.gov<\/p>\n<p>Edi Alvarez, CFP<sup>\u00ae<br \/>\n<\/sup>BS, BEd, MS<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/\"><strong>www.aikapa.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is debit card fraud? Debit card fraud usually begins when a thief swipes the magnetic strip on the back of your card and create a duplicate of your card.\u00a0 The thief is said to &#8216;skim&#8217; your card. To be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=371\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[125,124,34,123],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-violations-warnings","tag-debit-card","tag-pishing","tag-scam","tag-skimming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}