Lately, there have been recent reports of massive credit card security breaches. Hackers and scammers are always on the look-out for an easy score. You can’t keep them from targeting big corporations, but you can take steps to ensure they don’t get your personal information through any fault of your own.

You’ve heard the usual advice: don’t carry all of your credit cards in your wallet; don’t give out your credit card number over the phone; and don’t shop online except at trusted web sites with good security measures in place. What else can you do to protect yourself?

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When we think of credit card fraud, we often think of individuals who have had their wallets or purses stolen and their credit cards used to finance unauthorized purchases. Or the victims of identity thieves who learn that they owe thousands of dollars in debts that they never incurred. But credit card fraud hurts merchants and businesses, too. And fraudsters are getting bolder every day.

Consider the case of Paul Thibodeau, the owner of Paul’s Outdoor Kitchens in Parrish, FL. He took a relay phone call that he assumed was being made on behalf of a deaf customer. The caller ordered thousands of dollars worth of kitchen materials. Though he listed his address as Fort Meyers, FL, he requested that the items be shipped to Athens, Greece. Thibodeau became suspicious when the caller gave him several credit card numbers, all of which were declined. Thibodeau’s suspicions were correct; his caller wasn’t deaf at all, but an identity thief who was giving out stolen credit card numbers. His plan was to convince Thibodeau to wire money to a fictitious shipping company. Then the thief would pocket the proceeds, and Thibodeau would be at a loss.

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Identity theft is a serious crime. Estimates vary, but up to 15 million people may have been victimized by identity thieves in America last year. And the demographics of this crime are startling: victims usually know or have a personal relationship with the very people who steal their identity. It’s a sad fact that identity thieves are likely to be our friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members. Even young children are targets – and their parents are the usual perpetrators.

Once identity thieves have your personal information, they’re most likely to use it to open new credit card accounts. Considering the potential for financial ruin, that’s a scary proposition indeed. Worse, they can also pretend to be you while they hijack the accounts you already have. Once your identity has been compromised, it can take thousands of hours and a lot of money to repair the damage.

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Identity theft. Those two words can strike fear in the hearts of card holders everywhere. It seems like you can’t trust anyone these days. Even friends and co-workers can access your information and open a line of credit in your name. Worse, businesses that drop the ball on their security measures have been breached by hackers to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Victims of identity theft usually do no wrong, but suffer the consequences anyway.

Here are three of the highest-profile identity theft schemes from the past year.

The Jetsetters

Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton were young, nice-looking, and had bright futures ahead of them. But they chose to use their powers for evil when they started taking the identities of friends and neighbors to pay for trips to the Eiffel Tower and other exotic locales. These college-aged fraudsters used their ill-gotten funds to finance a $3,000 a month luxury apartment and other high-dollar purchases. They were arrested in December when they went to retrieve a parcel of expensive lingerie that had been ordered in a neighbor’s name. Now the two are headed to court to enter guilty pleas. The moral of this story? If you steal identities, you will get caught. If you steal identities from people you see every day, you will get caught fast.

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Identity theft is a real threat to our world today. Scammers all over the world have take the identity of another person and used their good credit to purchase items, all the while never repaying them. This happens more often than we really care to admit and has become the source of a great deal of headaches for creditors and consumers alike. It is for this reason that some credit card companies and payment processors have begun to offer what is known as random credit card number generation.

This has proven to be really helpful for many people, especially those who need to give their credit card numbers over the internet or the telephone. This prevents you from having to give others your credit card number and makes it much safer to shop online or over the telephone at the same time. Many credit card companies and payment processors call these numbers “Virtual Account Numbers”.

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There are few things just as disturbing as the thought of having your identity stolen. All a criminal has to do is get a hold of a few of the right numbers and words, and they can take over your virtual and financial life, burying you in debt that you had no hand in incurring and ruining your credit. It can take years and a lot of money to get everything sorted out, and afterwards you’ll never feel quite as secure, knowing just how bad things can get if you aren’t careful.

It’s a strong argument for guarding your financial information closely, and people try. You know you should never give out your financial information over the phone, and never to anyone at all unless you have some way of being certain you’re talking to a representative of a legitimate business, and you know not to give it out to strangers. But are you throwing your identity out with the trash?

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We’ve all heard cautionary tales about identity theft. Why, then, do so many of us assume that it will not happen to us?

It does happen, all too often. Credit card holders are more vulnerable than most; unlike the old days of check fraud and forged signatures, today’s identity thieves use credit card details to open up lines of credit and rack up serious debt in their victims’ names.

If you have a credit card, there are several steps you can take to safeguard your identity. First, and most importantly, you must stay vigilant. Know where your card is at all times, and be careful about who you entrust it to. Waiters and other servers can easily copy down your credit card details for their own personal use. Remember – to shop online or by phone, one only needs to know the numbers on the card they’re using. Sometimes, paying with cash is a good idea.

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Disposable diapers, disposable cameras- and now… disposable credit card numbers? They’re actually referred to within the industry as virtual credit card numbers, and are currently being offered through most major credit card issuers.

Virtual credit card numbers are single-use numbers that expire within a month or two of issue, and are used for shopping online in place of the number that’s actually on your credit card. What’s the point? The number is only good at the one web site where you make your purchase, and only for a limit period of time- so if hackers have obtained your credit card number during an online transaction, the next time they go to use it, it will not work.

When a customer receives their credit card statement after shopping with virtual credit card numbers, the purchases show up on the statement exactly like any other purchase. Some card issuers will provide the virtual number used to make the purchase along side the charge, for reference purposes.

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There are a variety of ways that thiefs can get your information and use your cards to make purchases. Here are a few of the more common ways:

You pay for dinner at the restaurant with your credit card. Your waitress takes the card to the register, processes the transaction and returns it. What you didn’t see was the copy of your card details that she made, and later used it to make purchases online and by phone!

You can’t believe your luck when you get a mailing that says you’ve won a free trip and all you need to do is join a travel club to get the free trip. After providing your credit card details to join the club, you never ge the free trip and you start seeing charges on your statement that you didn’t make!

A thief finds copies or receipts of items containing your credit card details in the trash and then uses the information to make purchases.

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Just about everybody has heard of identity theft, but most people do not believe it could ever happen to them. The fact is, identity theft is more common than most believe. It’s not hard for identity thieves to obtain all of the information they need in order to assume another person’s identity, but it can be made a whole lot harder for them if people remain smart and protect themselves as completely as possible.

When it Happens…
If a person becomes a victim of identity theft, it can take a long time – possibly years – to recover from it. It can also cost the victim thousands of dollars as well as ruin their credit score. Usually, it’s nearly impossible to recover from identity theft in a quick manner because many things have to be resolved before forgiveness will be given by the three major credit reporting companies in the United States.

If identity theft does happen, the person who is the victim will probably experience problems obtaining any sort of financing (mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit cards, etc…). And, the worst thing that can happen is that the victim of identity theft can even get arrested for crimes he or she did not commit.

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