The best way to avoid fraud is to know how the fraud occurs. Credit card fraud starts when the card is stolen or when the crucial information of the card is stolen. This includes name of card holder, the account number, expiration date, and verification/CVV code. Stolen cards should be reported quickly by calling the customer care department. But stolen information is difficult to trace and one can only know that the fraud has occurred when the bill statement. Ergo, one should also check bill statement carefully when it comes in.
Identity thefts on card are increasing these days. Identity thefts are of two types - application fraud and account takeover.

Application fraud refers to the fraud when the criminal steals your document to open an account in someone else name. The criminal may steal your important documents like utility bills and bank statements in order to build up useful personal information.

Alternatively they may create fake documents. In account takeover fraud the criminal may gather the information of a person’s bank account then the criminal calls up the bank as a genuine cardholder and ask the bank to send the mail to the new address. The criminal would then report the loss of card. And then once the criminal receives the replacement card, he/she can use it!

Skimming is another type fraud done on credit cards. It is typically done by the dishonest employee working with the merchant. In skimming the criminal uses a small electronic device which is known as skimmer to capture the magnetic strip data on the card. This is then transferred to another, duplicate, card. The duplicate card is then used for fraud purposes.
It is easy for the bank to detect this type of fraud. The bank can collect a list of all the card holders who have complained about fraudulent transactions. Then, it uses data mining to discover relationships among the card holders and the merchants they use.
For instance if a large no. of the afore-mentioned credit card holders have used a particular merchant, that merchant terminal or (point-of-sale device) can be directly investigated.

In case of application and account takeover frauds you don’t have to worry much. If any unsolicited card is activated without the consent of the recipient the central bank has said that the issuing bank has to reverse the charges. Plus, they (issuing bank) would be required to pay a penalty twice the amount of the charges reversed. All you must do is to report a complaint at the issuing bank. If you do not receive a satisfactory/any response within 2-3 weeks, please approach the Banking Ombudsman. The details are available at www.bankingombudsman.rbi.org.in.

The aim of writing this article is to help the merchant as well as the customer to avoid risk present in the customer not present (CNP) fraud. Here we will carefully learn how the CNP process works to avoid CNP-related frauds in the future. CNP transactions happen with the card holder not present at the point of sale. Here the card holder’s order is taken by the merchant over the phone, email, or by fax. The merchant is unable to check the identity of the credit card holder. CNP transaction is thus the most risky for both card holder and merchant. Criminals can take undue advantage of this by using fake personal details by illegally obtaining your card information.

During the CNP process the merchant request authorization from the bank to process the sale transaction. The bank verifies that the card is not stolen or lost, and checks whether the card carries enough funds or not, and then gives the go-ahead to the merchant to proceed with the transaction. Now, if the transaction results in a fraud, the full amount has to be paid by the merchant. And the card holder whose card has been used for fraud purposes comes to know only when he/she gets the bill statement. So….check your bill statement as and when it comes in. If you find any fraudulent transaction, report to your bank immediately. In CNP frauds, the card holder is still safe as the bank would not hold the card holder responsible. The merchant is not so lucky. It has to pay from its own pocket whatever the fraudulent transaction amount is. So what’s the solution to avoid it for both the card holder and the merchant?

• Merchants should avoid CNP transactions as a matter of course.
• If they intend to do it, they should do these transactions only with clients who they know well; which means they can recognise the client’s voice properly. Even in such cases, they should avoid the transaction at the first hint of suspicion.
• Card holders should not share their credit card details with anybody; not even with friends.