Don’t be a Credit Card Mark

November 22, 2011 by smsadmin · Leave a Comment
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In carny terms a “mark” is someone the local carnival folk would take advantage of because of his naïve nature about how the festival worked. The workers would slap the “mark” on the back of the victims coat with chalk so the other carny workers would know that he was a gullible target. While people don’t visit state fairs and carnivals in quite the same numbers today, the Internet has become the one stop shop for con artists and hacks trying to get your money.

The days when people were afraid to purchase items through eBay and Amazon have long passed us, but people are still getting duped out of their money by savvy scammers on the Internet. Here are some of the ways you could fall victim to the new breed of Internet carnies:

Continuing Subscription Fees

Netflix, PS3, your gym, they all have one thing in common: they want to get the most money out of you without telling you they are charging anything. Be sure to receive a monthly statement from these companies and keep secure records of transactions just like auto title loans and ATM transfers.

Card Testers

If you are purchasing items from independent ecommerce websites or giving your information away on your smartphone, you may become the victim of credit card testers. These people will take a dollar or two off of your credit card each month just to see if you read your statements. After a little bit of time, they will start to take off more until you call your bank. Make sure to check your statements and report suspicious activity.

Foreign Domains

Just because a website has a domain extension that ends with a certain country’s domain extension does not make it a reliable ecommerce site. Other countries have different laws set in place to deal with Internet fraud and theft. According to Forbes, Americans are running to Russian sites for ecommerce, but you should still be careful.

Smart Phones/ Wi-Fi

While you may think that every transaction you make on a smartphone will go to your carrier bill, think again. You may be accessing a Wi-Fi hot spot instead of a 3G or 4G network. Providing credit card information over your smartphone is just as risky as on a laptop.

Non HTTPS:// Domains

If you visit any website that uses a secure ecommerce system, you will notice that the left hand part of your address bar will turn green, have the HTTPS:// added to it, and have a lock symbol displayed right next to it. CNBC suggests that you do not use any website that doesn’t implement these safety features.

Sure, you may not be playing ring toss or shooting large basketballs into tiny hoops, but the Internet is still a vacuum for scammers to make money off of unsuspecting dupes. Educate yourself and use caution for every online purchase.

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