How to prevent scam site charges unauthorized amounts to your credit cards

kennethtan

1) Never give out your credit card number unless you are purchasing an item online with a well known site.
2) Be suspicious of any site that requires your credit card number for age verification. This usually is a common scam at adult sites.
3) There is no reason to give your credit card number for a free trial period.
4) Be cautious at sites that offer a discount introductory trial period, especially online adult sites.
5) Always read the fine print to determine how to cancel your trial offers or memberships. Some free trial periods actually require you to join a 3 month membership as a minimum.
6) Review your credit card invoices upon receipt to for any unauthorized purchases and report any discrepancies to your credit card issuer.
7) If, after you have reported any crammed expenses to your credit card issuer, your credit card issuer is still permitting similar crammed expenses showing up on your card, cancel your card.
8) Use as few credit cards as possible and destroy and cancel ones that you don't use frequently.


Remember that once a scammer has your credit card number, he or she can charge your account with unwarranted charges or use your credit card number to purchase items for the scammer's benefit. If you have been a victim, file a complaint at our site to alert others. Also contact your local better business bureau and your state or provincial governmental consumer department or ministry.

jay78

kennethtan wrote:

1)
3) There is no reason to give your credit card number for a free trial period.

I agree. However this is quite common. Experian require you to give your credit card details for their free trial.

JohalaReewi

You also need to add "Never agree to a continuous payment authority on your credit card especially over the internet to companies who may not even be in the UK." Getting these cancelled can be a nightmare. Unscrupulous websites like to 'enable' this feature by default so you have to consciously find and activate the 'stop taking payments' option.

As an aside, keep an eye open for The Real Hustle on BBC3. Lots of real scams exposed on this programme including plenty of Credit Card scams. The WiFi hijack is a classic which gives another rule.. "Never use your credit card over the internet when using a public WiFi service."