Common fraudsters’ techniques to steal money from a card

Unfortunately, fraudulent actions in relation to money transactions have become more and more frequent. Especially it concerns transfers and payments in Internet. And lack of proper attention to this issue, however unfortunate, makes banking and other personal data vulnerable to thieves. Carding is a name for fraudulent actions against your bank card. It is necessary to understand this phenomenon in details and the ways to protect yourself from the theft of money from your card.

The most common ways to steal from your bank card (including a virtual card) today are psychological methods, in which swindlers exert moral and psychological pressure and persuasion. Intimidation and deception are also used. But the most common method of exerting pressure on cardholders is phone phishing. In this way, personal banking data is pulled from the public.

How fraudsters steal money from cards over the phone

There are some of the most common methods thieves use to steal all the data they need from cardholders:

– They introduce themselves as bank officials, such as security or financial monitoring officers, reporting any suspicious activity allegedly observed on your card. And in order for the bank to take protective measures, people are asked to dictate card details.

– Often the client is also offered to transfer the money to a separate account for their protection. Sometimes they may offer to cash it out at an ATM and offer a taxi to the machine they need.

– Convince them to install the program on their smartphone for security. In fact, scammers can both steal money from your card and arrange a pre-approved loan, then cash out everything from your card.

– After the start of the pandemic, so many people start referring to the topic of coronavirus. People are offered vaccinations, medical care, diagnostics that will supposedly be free, and much more. The ultimate goal of this is for you to transfer money to another account, which the thieves specify.

– On behalf of Pension Fund employees offer pensioners cash benefits, for the transfer of which they need people’s bank details. In certain cases pensioners are offered to transfer their savings to a separate account to pay the state fee for future compensation.

It is absolutely important for everyone to remember exactly how fraudsters steal money from your card. Never, under any circumstances, give the PIN code from your card or free online account or the CVC code that is printed on the back of your card to unauthorized persons. Absolutely no one. It’s often the case that you may have real bank numbers displayed when you receive calls from scammers. Sometimes they may also introduce themselves as police officers.

Other ways to steal and cheat

Of course, in addition to phone calls, many scammers resort to more sophisticated methods. Among them:

1.     Theft of card data during payment. In this case it is not always the fault of outsiders, but also of the sellers themselves. You should never let your guard down. After all, an employee of a shop, a cafe or a gas station can take a photo of your card, copy its data or just remember it. Later, with the help of this card you can shop online. Never give your card to anyone.
2.     A double transaction, which can also be encountered at retail outlets. At this point, the cashier swipes your card over the debit device and reports a transaction error. This way, you can voluntarily provide your card for a subsequent transaction. As a result, the card, including a virtual debit card, is debited twice as much. However, such situations can really be an error or a failure in the payment system. Unfortunately, no one is secure from such situations. To avoid misunderstandings we advise you to activate SMS-notification on your phone to keep track of all transactions on your card and account.
3.     Theft from cards equipped with contactless payment technology. The essence of the method is based on interception of signals from the card. Sometimes an intruder needs only to bring the reader within 5 to 20 cm of your card. Besides this, they can also use clone cards to which all the bank information is copied and then the real cards are debited.

The best way to store your money and prevent unauthorized access to your savings is by setting up a secure online account. There are many services and platforms as well as banking institutions that have implemented maximum protection for their customers’ data. A secure WestStein prepaid card allows you to guard against many manifestations of fraud. But you definitely need to be extremely careful in all situations.