Just suffered card fraud for the THIRD time. How do YOU guard against it??

[northender]

They took just over £650 this time using my debit card details and very . The bank have been great, I spotted it within a couple of days when checking an online statement. One of the companies have reported it to the police as the person appears to have done it before with other cards.

As it is the third time its happened we are reviewing how we use our cards over the phone and online. Looking back we don't do a huge number of transactions that way but the person I spoke to at the bank said it could be companies who have your details on file and they are hacked.

So what do you do to avoid being defrauded?

I never give card details over the phone and will only use online with large reputable companies where they have the padlock symbol. I also only use my credit card online as its safer. Have been internet shopping for at least 8 years and have been fine.

My DS had his card details cloned at a petrol station. Turned out that this one particular petrol station had scammed a huge number of people and it was a massive police operation.

Do you use any shops/ petrol stations that either take your card away or could have a camera above the machine?

make sure your computer is protected against viruses, spyware and malware - I use spybot and AVG - both free.

I'm becoming much more reluctant to do any online or telephone transactions. I've heard lots of stories of problems with petrol stations and card cloning, we tend to use cash for that and most shopping we do. We do have AVG but I will check what else we have in terms of PC security. We are thinking of having debit cards with no overdraft facility or a credit card with a low limit purely for online or telephone purchases.

low limit credit card is better for online purchases.

I dont like to shop onliine and do so very sparingly and cautiously. Not keen on phone purchases (in fact the only phone transaction i make is to pay my credit card).

I prefer to use cash and avoid using the cards. But always cover the keypad when i put my numbers in and change pin numbers regularly. I have a series of numbers that i rotate.

1. use a single credit card for online/not in person transactions. this means we have 2 credit cards (1 for normal use, 1 for internet/phone transactions) BUT this is much better for us

1. only use websites with padlock in the corner of the screen (and usually reputable sites only, if i've not heard of them before i ask my H for advice since he works in IT)

1. i look like some paranoid wierdo at the tills and ATM because i look around the area to make sure i'm not being watched, i check the insert so there's no interference where you put the card in, and i cover the pad with my other hand

1. when closing accounts with companies, i don't just stop using them or ask them to stop contacting me, i specifically ask for all data to be removed about me within legal limits - card numbers etc. you wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of times i have to repeat this stuff, most call centre employees just say "don't worry we're not going to send you mail"... ffs, it's not junk mail i'm worried about so just make it clear, i've found that "will you remove my details from your system" isn't enough, you have to say "please remove all details that you hold within your systems about me as required under the data protection act", they understand what you've requested then

i've only been cloned once, and that was due to me setting up a new laptop and not waiting for H to get home and put anti spyware stuff on it i wouldn't make any internet banking transactions on the library computers or anything for that reason. i'm sure they're fine, but i don't want to risk it.

oh 1 more thing. if anyone ever tries to take my card out of sight, i don't proceed with the transaction. i will NOT leave my card behind a bar, or let a waiter take my card whilst he sets up the PIN machine... my sister worked in a high end restaurant during uni and she told me they're NOT EVER meant to do that, the customer should be politely asked to come over to the machine if the card could potentially go out of sight. i'm pretty sure that was standard, and not just because the diners were paying rediculous amounts of money for their meals so don't let them out of your sight too.

My top tips -

Don't use a debit card for telephone/internet transactions - credit card is much better and the fraud is the company's responsibility not yours as it's not your money that's been taken it's the CC company's. Other than that, shred anything with your address on it and all reciepts even if most of the numbers are * out. Shield your PIN even if you don't think anyone is watching.

Talk to your bank and see if they have phone notification. DH has been done a few times and they now send a text on any suspicious transactions and if he doesn't confirm them they freeze his card for a few hours till he calls them.

Get a credit card for online purchases only and each time you use it record the purchase on paper so you have a note of it to check against the statement.

Run your finger over any ATM slot to check for rogue devices. Cover your hand over the keypad when putting in your PIN.

Keep £50 in cash on your person and pay with it if you are in any doubt.

Thanks so much. It's really useful to know what others do. frgr asking companies to remove all your info from their databases is great advice I think and something I will start to do. From my conversation with the bank it's that sort of thing that this is likely to have been. I'll follow your advice and be pushy!!

See what has really unnerved me is that I would consider myself pretty savvy about money and security and do a lot of the things that have been mentioned. Clearly not savvy enough though.
So we will work through websites who still email us and ask for our details to be removed completely.
Our credit card is with our bank so can be viewed when I do internet banking which makes it easy for me to monitor transactions. We'll open another with a very low limit purely for online/phone transactions
Minimise online and phone transactions, we aren't great shoppers and I like to keep it local and use cash anyway so that's an easy one
Am already very careful at ATMs and never let the card out of my sight but there are odd occasions we pay by card at petrol stations so will try to stop that I think.
Online shopping is great for some specialist things but I guess a lot of those places would accept a cheque in the post maybe?

I had my card cloned a few years ago, and since then, every time I make a big purchase using my card the bank rings me up to check it. You can ask them to not authorise purchases over a certain amount - then when you want to pay for something big, like a holiday etc, you have to call them to let them know you are going to do it. It's a pain but at least you know you are protected.