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Prevention Of Credit Card Identity Theft
Credit Card Identity Theft involves the theft of your credit card or account number to make unauthorized charges to your account. If your credit card information falls into the wrong hands, you may be held liable for outrageous bills that were incurred by the identity thief. Thus, the importance of protecting your credit card information goes without saying.
There are many things that can be done to monitor bank accounts and other personal information to prevent identity theft. One way is to avoid giving out your credit card number in public or over the phone. In fact, if you really have to give out a credit card number, you should give out eight numbers then move the receiver away ( or cover it with your hand) say four more numbers then remove your hand and put your mouth back on the phone speaker and then completing the number. In this way, it will confuse the identity thief who happened to be eavesdropping your call!
In addition, it is advisable to make a list of or photocopy all of your credit cards. For each card, include the account number, expiration date, credit limit and telephone numbers of customer service and fraud departments. Keep this list in a safe place so that you can contact each creditor quickly if your cards are lost or stolen.
Before applying for a credit card, you should check with the bank or store on their procedure for safeguarding credit applications. It must be ensured that they are treated as strictly confidential documents and handled with caution. When you received the credit card by mail, you must immediately sign on the back of the credit card in permanent ink. If possible, use an signature that is difficult to imitate so as to reduce any forgery of signatures should someone try to misuse your credit card.
Another way to prevent credit card identity theft is to carefully examine each monthly credit card statement to ensure that every charge accurately matches your credit card receipts. You must bear in mind not to sign a blank charge slip. If forced to, you can use a low-limit credit card to thwart identity thieves. Furthermore, if you have any unused credit cards, cancel them so that their account numbers will not appear on your credit report. If an identity thief obtains your credit report, he could use the account numbers to obtain credit in your name. To prevent this problem, some credit reporting agencies truncate account numbers on credit reports.
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For more information on Citibank commercial identity theft preventing solutions, reporting credit card identity theft cases or online identity theft protection, please visit the following website: Identity Theft Resource Guide
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