CHIP CREDIT CARDS– Scammers Trying to Take Advantage of New Cards

Scammers are innovative in trying to take your money. Within hours of Microsoft’s release of Windows 10, a scammer from Thailand was distributing an email to Windows users offering to let them get a jump start in upgrading their computers. Just click on the link.

Now scammers (their origin is not known) are circulating an email offering to send you the chip-enabled credit card or debit card that your financial institution is sending to you anyway.

The new cards have a chip that when inserted into a card reader at the point of sale makes a calculation that can be checked on the spot to ensure that the card is not a fake. This procedure takes a few seconds longer than the traditional swiping of the magnetic strips, but it is more secure and is expected to discourage “card cloning.” Card cloning is where an ID thief takes a stolen account number and makes a credit or debit card based on that information.

All retailers were supposed to have the new readers by October 1 of this year. Most card users have received the new cards before the October 1^st date; however, distribution of the cards is not complete.

The emails are a phishing scheme that will be disguised as your bank or credit card issuer. They claim that you can get your new card simply by clicking on the provided link and providing your account information and other sensitive information. You may be taken to a web site that collects this information or downloads malware.

You will receive your chip card in the mail from your bank/card issuer without needing to give them your account information!

The danger of this email is ID theft or malware added to your computer that could record your keystrokes or take personal information from your computer. You can tell when you have a phishing email by looking for the following features:

·         The email domain on the “From” portion of the email will not be from the entity that the email claims to be from.

·         The text of the email has misspellings and poor grammar.

·         The email may contain a threat.

·         When you hover your cursor over the link that the email wants you to click, the web address to the link does not match the entity that the email claims to be from.

To protect yourself, if you receive this email, delete it or put it in your junk folder. If you have not received your chip card yet, contact your bank or credit card issuer directly by calling the customer service number on the back of your current card.  

For more information about this scam and the chip cards go to:

Credit.com:

http://blog.credit.com/2015/10/scam-tied-to-new-chip-credit-cards-127454/

http://blog.credit.com/2015/10/whats-really-happening-to-your-credit-card-on-oct-1-126056/