Debit or Credit?

In today’s age of electronic commerce, when I leave my place, I will only bring my cell phone, key, debit / credit card and opal card with me.  How about money?  Nahhh…   Debit cards/ credit cards are much more convenient as I don’t have to worry whether I have enough to pay or to get loads of heavy small change.  However, it reminds me of one of our readers’ cases – Miss L’s credit card fraud.  Here comes the question, what’s the difference between debit card and credit card? And is a debit card or credit card safer?

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bank_cards.jpg

What’s difference between debit card and credit card?

Debit card and credit card may look visually similar to you, but there are significant differences between them.

Generally credit card is not linked to your current account.  Therefore, when you buy things today, you will pay for them later.  At the end of each month, you will receive your outstanding balance.  You can choose either paying the bill in full at a certain day and incur no interest or paying the minimum payment and spread the rest of the repayments out over time and being charged for interest.  Credit card is commonly used as users can also join the rewards programs, interest-free days, and the ability to use the banks’ money.

A debit card is whereas linked to your current account.  When you purchase thing, money you spend will be automatically taken from your current account.  Debit cards are attractive to those who like to stick to budget on their own money.

Is debit card or credit card safer?

Indeed, card users are not liable for unauthorized purchase for both credit and debit cards and all major credit and debit card issuers offer $0 liability guarantees for an unauthorized charge.  However, as credit card users don’t have to pay the bill immediately right after they receive the statement (at least 21 days from the time a statement is available to pay the amount due), customers will have much more time to notice unauthorized charges, notify your issuer of the problem and have them removed from your bill.  For debit cards, when the identity thieves use your card to purchase things, it will pay immediately from your account and may clear out your bank account before you notice.  Therefore, it will take much longer time for you to recover all of your money after you contact your bank.

How to protect yourself?

Here’re a few things you can do no matter you are using debit/credit cards:

• Change your passwords and use a secure password for your bank account
• Check your credit reports regularly
• Shred financial documents as identity thieves may look through your garbage bins
• Verify web security. Only provide personal financial information on “https” websites
• Keep your Tax File Number (TFN) private. You should only give your TFN to reputable companies after you have contacted them
• Clear your mailbox regularly as mail overflowing is an opportunity for identity theft.

-KYCL-

True story from Miss C — Email Account Hacked

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/You_Have_Been_Hacked%21.jpg

Dear page owner of ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE,

My husband had a similar experience, it’s not his facebook account, by his Hotmail account. One day his friends told him they had received emails from my husband who was stolen money in London and had nothing behind and asked his friends to help him financially, indeed my husband was in hong kong, then he discovered that his account was hacked and stolen, he had to tell all his friends not to be cheated and then he informed Hotmail about the incident, eventually he closed the email account! later he reflected on the whole incident and learned to safeguard his password and personal information! never expose your information to anyone!

Best Regards,

Miss C

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Hi Miss C,

Thanks for your email.  I am grateful that you are willing to share your case with our readers and us.

It is sad to hear that your husband’s Hotmail account was hacked or taken over by someone else. I understand that having your email account hacked is a nightmare especially when the identity thief maliciously spread rumors and took advantage of the trust of your husband’s friends.  I am glad that at last none of his friends fell victims.  However, it is sad that he can no longer use the same email address again.  Here’re some tips in preventing email account hacked

• You should change your password regularly. The more characters there are in your password the longer it will take for a hacker to break it.  Use a mixture of numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters as it increases the complexity of your password and increases its strength. Avoid using your name and birthday as password.
• Do not open unfamiliar emails. If you open one you think is from someone you know but realize it’s not, delete immediately. Do not click any links in the message or send the sender personal or banking information. Once you open that link, your computer could become infected by a phishing scam and your information stolen.
• Do not log into your accounts from an untrusted computer, like at a cafe, library and your friends’ and family’s place. Even if you trust your friends and family, their computer could be infected from spyware.
• Install anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall on your computer and keep them updated.

Cheers,

KYCL

True story from Miss L — Credit card fraud

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosengrant/3537904106/in/photolist-6oCFCE-7htx73-64F67n-9zN2hY-6hnHtT-jLeLJR-cgcemW-roCJtM-74Sr9Q-hN1djZ-8yGcEp-5VS5yZ-6pX14g-iFiov3-92KZ1U-86GNAX-aYzNm-nj7R8C-8hy2mk-au9dQE-aAZmsS-fQEN8h-drEaac-Xx6P-51AU8i-bJsTcF-rM8R9-dyfyN3-6Zdshg-7JrJ7n-4ApbVv-AhGk5-bGc9dX-4wReef-4wM6nK-87WgDF-7PyxhU-4wM6CK-4wM6wK-6KuHz5-5j7XPM

Dear page owner of ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE,

Last year, when I was checking my Commonwealth NetBank, I saw a list of pending transactions that wasn’t done by me. I quickly checked the locations and there were some places that I didn’t even know, so I knew my card was hacked. The total amount was $1516. I immediately called the bank and cancelled the card and went to the bank to get some money out. I was debating whether I should report to the police. But most of my friends said this is really common so I didn’t bother to report it. After a month or so, I still haven’t received my money back, then I decided to report to the police and they said they will check the CCTV and get back to me. 2 weeks later I finally got all my money back.

Best regards,

Miss L.

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Dear Miss L.

Thanks for your email.  I am grateful that you are willing to share your case with our readers and us.

It is sad to hear that your credit card was used by the identity theft.  Glad that at the end, you got all your money back.  I guess you learnt a lesson that when you found out that the credit card fraud, you should not only report to the bank but also the police.  To learn more about how to prevent yourself from financial identity theft & credit card fraud, read more on https://areyoutheonly1.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-financial-identity-theft-credit-card-fraud/

Cheers,

KYCL

Do you know who are the 4 biggest targets for identity theft? And how identity theft affects the victim?

Identity theft is everywhere.  However, do you know who are the 4 biggest targets for identity theft and how often it happens?  And how identity theft affects the victims?

Here’s the infographic.

Created by AreYouTheOnlyOne on Piktochart.com

-KYCL-

The Facebook dislike button may be a scam

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the long desired ‘dislike’ button would be publicly revealed soon.  However, the scammers have already used the dislike button as bait to trap Facebook users into believing that clicking on some links would give them an early access to the dislike button.  The new dislike button scam is expected to spread fast and wide due to its nature and how the Facebook users are anxiously waiting to get the dislike button.

So how would the scammer trick you?

The dislike button scam is a link that explicitly designed to spread through Facebook when one user misleadingly clicks the link and claims for the dislike button.

The Headline of scam link reads: “GET NEWLY INTRODUCED FACEBOOK DISLIKE BUTTON ON YOUR PROFILE.”

Screenshot from Facebook

What’s next?

Screenshot from Facebook

After clicking through, there are two more steps to activate the so-called newly introduced Facebook dislike button on users’ profiles.

Users are required to share this page with their friends and send it to five of the groups that they belong to.

Once the link is successful in spreading on users’ Facebook, the scam page will then require users to fill out surveys in order to gather their personal information and account details.  Consequently, the information collected will be used to spam their contacts via email.

In the end, the users cannot activate the dislike button.

Obviously, Facebook-provided Dislike button wouldn’t require the users to go to some random-looking third-party site to download it.  Hence, when you encounter any random-looking third-party on Facebook, REMEMBER NOT to CLICK IN AND PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.  As identity is everything.  Protect it or risk it?

-KYCL-

What to do when your Facebook account was hacked?

Source: “Facebook Headquarters Entrance Sign Menlo Park” by LPS.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#/media/File:Facebook_Headquarters_Entrance_Sign_Menlo_Park.jpg

Facebook has become a part of our daily life.  For most people, it is a nightmare when their Facebook accounts are hacked.  Imagine if someone has access to all your photos, private messages, he/she could even contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete/ use your personal information.  Following Miss J’s case and comment from our reader, Liz from the last blog, there’re 4 things you should do when your Facebook account is hacked.

1. Change your password.

In case you are lucky enough that your password has not been changed. It’s time for you to change your password.

Go to > Home > Settings> General Account Settings > Password to change your password

Screenshot from Facebook

2. Get control of your Facebook account back

As to secure your account, go to www.facebook.com/hacked

Follow the Facebook instructions.  This process can also help if your account or computer has been affected by a virus or malware.

3. Do damage control

After you regain the control of your Facebook account and change your password, you should inform your friends about the Facebook account hacked, just in case the hacker has abused or currently is abusing your account.

If you still can’t access your account, you should try to contact your Facebook friends by other social media platforms, via email, or ask a mutual friend to help you to inform them via Facebook.  When you again gain access, proceed to step 3.

4. Remove suspicious applications

Sometimes, it is not the identity thieves who have tried to hack into your account randomly, but rather we have granted them access to our personal information in some malicious application.  Hence, you should remove some suspicious applications.

To remove suspicious applications,

Go to Home > Setting > Apps and go through the list.

Click X to remove the apps

Click Edit Settings to change what the app can do.

Screenshot from Facebook

-KYCL-

Real Story from Miss J. — Hacked Facebook Account

Modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facebook.svg

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Hi Miss J,

Thanks for your email.  I am grateful that you are willing to share your case with our readers and us.

It is sad to hear that your Facebook account was hacked or taken over by someone else. I understand that having your Facebook account hacked is a nightmare.  Imagine if someone has access to all your photos, private messages, he/she could contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete/ use your personal information.  I am glad that when your Facebook account was hacked, you didn’t suffer any loss.  In the next blog, I will talk about the 4 things you should do immediately when your Facebook account is hacked.  Stay tuned!!!

Cheers,

KYCL

How to protect yourself from financial identity theft & credit card fraud

In one of the previous Facebook posts on our Facebook page, one of our readers commented that he would like to know more about how to prevent financial identity theft.  So here’s the blog!!!

Photo credit: Lending Memo

The Facebook post is a YouTube video, ‘Why care about identity theft?’ produced by Federal Trade Commission.  This video is about the story of Lynn.  Lynn never had a credit card or borrow money.  One day, Lynn decided to apply for a credit card.  She sent out the application, but the company turned her down.  She got a free copy of credit report and found out that someone used her name to apply for 8 credit cards and she even had a car loan.

So here are some tips to protect yourself from financial identity theft and credit card fraud

Watch your information online

Online shopping and banking have become much more common nowadays.  With all the account numbers and passwords floating around, identity thieves can easily steal your information.

• Clear your logins and passwords especially when you are using a public computer.
• Change logins and passwords regularly
• Use credit card rather than debit card overseas or for shopping on the internet as any amount stolen comes directly from your own funds and may take some time to get the money back into your account
• Be aware for phishing, which is spam or pop-ups mimic legitimate banks or businesses to obtain your personal information. The identity thieves will use it to access your accounts.
• Always verify that you’re on a familiar Web site before entering personal information

Monitor your bank and credit card statements

• Check your accounts regularly
• If you find something irregular, report it to your bank and police immediately

Verify your mailing address with the post office and financial institutions

• Identity thieves may fill out the change of address forms so that you won’t be able to check your credit report and aware of the fraud.

Shred sensitive documents

• Shred outdated bank statements, credit card applications and anything with your personal information before throwing away or recycling.

Purchase identity theft protection service

• There are different services offered in the market, for example from the identity theft protection firms, banks or insurers. Pick the one that suits your need
• Specialty companies, like LifeLock and TrustedID

-KYCL-

Identity theft prevention tips from the subject of ‘Catch Me If You Can’

Following the last post, in real life, the famous confidence trickster, check forger and impostor, Frank Abagnale is now 67 year old and working as a consultant and lecturer for the FBI academy and field offices.  He also runs Abagnale & Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company.  Frank has written books on his life and fighting identity theft, helped develop fraud detective software, and speaks regularly at conferences and universities.

Photo by Jeffrey Langlois/Palm Beach Daily News.

In June 2015, Abagnale spoke at the Charlotte Convention Centre as part of the 2015 Fraud and Forensic Investigations Conference presented by Pfeiffer University.  Frank believes that technology makes the identity crime a lot easier to cheat today than before.  No matter how much money companies spend on IT security, hackers will try to use different methods to get the confidential information, like the JPMorgan hack last year.  However, before we accuse people of stealing identity information, spend a few second to think about what Abagnale said, ‘we give them this information’.

Hence, Frank Abagnale provided some tips on how to prevent the 21^st Century identity theft at the end of the speech

Facebook

• Avoid putting your birth date and birthplace on your profile

Online banking

• Use a unique password
• Don’t use the same password you use for a retail website like EBay

Photos online

• Don’t put individual pictures on social media
• Put group photos instead
• Put an action shot like “you playing tennis”, rather than a straight-on shot

Debit cards

• Don’t use for purchases
• Use credit cards instead

Shredders

• Use any brand of micro-cut shredder
• Avoid using shredders that cut in strips or crisscross

-KYCL-

“Catch Me If You Can” is not just a film but a true story.

“Catch Me If You Can” is a 2002 American crime film based on the true story about Frank Abagnale Jr.  At the age of 16 to 21, Frank successfully conned about four million dollars by committing several types of identity thieves.

Source: https://hirenj.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/catch-me.jpg

In case, you forget what the film is about or you have not yet watched it before, the story is about the teenaged Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) ran away from his parents when they divorced.  When he ran out of money, he learned to survive by becoming a mastermind in identity theft.  He began making fraudulent checks in return to obtain cash from the bank as a financial identity thief.  He also impersonated a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, lawyer and legal prosecutor to live and work as someone else and gain advantages as identity cloning.  Meanwhile, Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), an FBI bank fraud agent, began tracking Frank.

When Frank was posing as a doctor, he fell in love with Branda (Amy Adams), to whom he eventually admitted the truth about himself and asked Branda to meet him two days after their engagement so they could elope.   However, two days later, he realized that he had been set up and he escaped to Europe.

In Europe, Frank continued to commit check fraud.  Carl managed to arrest him and bring him back to America with the help of the printing professionals in tracing Frank’s location.  However, when the plane landed, Frack escaped from the FBI again as he was informed that his dad had passed away and he went back to his old house.  When Frank saw his mom with her new family, he decided to give up and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

While Frank was in prison, Carl visited him from time to time.  One time, Frank showed Carl how to identify whether the checks he had on hand was fake or not during the visit.    Carl realized that his mastermind would be treasurable for the FBI.  Hence, Carl convinced the FBI to offer Frank a deal by which he could live out the remainder of his sentence working in the FBI under the bank fraud department.

Frank attempted to fly as an airline pilot again while working at the FBI.  However, Frank eventually returned to work without anyone chasing him.  The story had a happy ending that Frank continued to work in the FBI, got married and had three sons.

The film exposes the astonishing tactics of today’s identity theft criminal.  Frank carried out some extraordinary scams with techniques like fabricating fraudulent checks, impersonation and pretexting.  Frank made the fraudulent checks looked real by skillfully removing the logos on the plane model and sticking it on the checks.   Frank also used a pilot’s uniform, jargon, his observation and some prior knowledge of airports he learned from an interview to impersonate someone to steal a person’s identity in the literal sense of the world.  With the trick of pretexting, he could easily con people.

While preventing identity theft is never a 100% guarantee, especially when we encounter some professional identity thieves, like Frank Abagnale, there are steps you can take to alert yourself to suspicious behavior before any damage is done and while you can still stake stapes to stop it.  Identity is everything.  Prevent it or risk it?

-KYCL-