Commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Professor Berna Collier has issued a reminder warning customers to be alert to credit card fraud following the security breach that affected 40 million credit cards worldwide.

Earlier this year, but only discovered in June, a data spill affected 130,000 cardholders in Australia. Hackers gained access to data by installing a piece of software on the transaction processor’s systems.

‘The latest estimates are that credit card fraud costs the economy at least $100m every year’, Professor Collier said.

A relatively recent scam involved a person calling a customer at home claiming to be from a large credit card company and stating that the customer’s credit card had been flagged for unusual activity. The caller then asks whether the customer has purchased a particular item for some hundreds of dollars.

The customer says ‘no’ and the caller continues and says they are commencing a fraud investigation and tells the customer to call the 1-800 number on the back of the card and ask for security. The caller asks for the three verification security numbers on the back of the card. At no time does he ask for the credit card number.

‘This is a scam. At no time, should you ever give details of your credit card to anyone who contacts you and asks for them. Instead, request the person’s details then contact your bank or other institution, and check to see if the call is legitimate’, Professor Collier said.

‘Fraudsters work in a variety of ways, and we have recently seen a lot of people caught out by ‘phishing’’, Professor Collier said.

In June this year, ASIC warned people to beware of phishing after citing a doubling in reports to ASIC concerning this financial scam.

Phishing is a technique used by fraudsters to gain personal information for the purpose of identity theft, by using deceptive email messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses, including well-known Australian and international banks or financial institutions. These emails ask for information including pin numbers, card expiry dates or Internet banking registration numbers and passwords.

There are some key steps people should take to guard against fraud:

1. Keep your card safe and secure
2. Keep your PINs and passwords secret and strictly to yourself
3. If you write down PINs and passwords, disguise them and keep the paper in a different place from your credit cards and somewhere where it isn’t likely to be stolen or lost at the same time as your credit card
4. Choose PINs and passwords that are hard to guess.
   Avoid obvious giveaways such as your date of birth, part of your name, address or other things thieves could easily guess if they know you or steal your bag
5. Secure your letterbox with a padlock if necessary
6. Don’t store Internet banking passwords in an undisguised form on your computer if you use your card for goods and services online. Send your card details only through secure Internet sites and be fussy about the businesses to which you send your details
7. Check your account statements promptly and carefully, and contact your institution immediately if there are transactions listed that you don’t understand or dispute. A contact number should appear on your account statement
8. Always keep your details up-to-date with your financial institutions so that they can easily contact you if they are suspicious of any transactions
9. Never throw away intact bills or bank statements.
   If you must discard them, shred them and ensure that your name and address cannot be linked to any account information
10. Stay in sight of your credit card if paying at a restaurant, bar, service station etc
11. Tell your institution as soon as you realise that your card has been stolen or lost, or if you think there may have been unauthorised use of it

ASIC’s guide to the EFT Code Using electronic funds transfer: your rights tells you more about your rights and responsibilities, and is available at www.fido.gov.au/codes or by calling the ASIC Infoline on 1300 300 630. The EFT code provides people with remedy and redress if they are the victims of a scam.

End of release

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