New online credit card scam

BEWARE of emails from your bank asking you to provide personal information or details about your bank account or credit card – the chances are they‘re fraudulent.

Citibank has become the latest financial services organisation to warn customers of scam emails that look official and which direct people to a look-alike bank website that asks for personal details or card information.

One email, received this week by This Is Money, demands that card holders update their PIN number on a website and even warns that failure to comply with the request will result in their account being suspended.

Banks, however, do not ask customers to provide sensitive information in this way and Citibank is warning its account holders and credit card customers to ignore such emails.

The launch of PIN and chip cards over the next 18 months will make it more difficult for fraudsters to use stolen cards as credit card holders will in future have to use a PIN number when making transactions.

But much card fraud takes place when the card itself is not even presented for the transaction. So called ?card holder not present‘ transactions include bookings made online or via telephone, and the new generation of cards will do little to prevent such fraud.

Fraudsters continue to make determined efforts to obtain cardholders‘ personal information because they can use it to apply for duplicate cards, new bank accounts and even take out loans and credit.

Citibank warned its customers: 'Be very suspicious of any business or person who asks for your password, social security number, or other highly sensitive information. These may appear to come from a trusted business or friend, but are designed to trick you into downloading a virus or jumping to a fraudulent website and disclosing sensitive information.'

While online fraud has become a major problem, con artists have also taken to using the telephone in their bid to rip off credit card holders. A ruse that has become extremely common lately is where a fraudsters call cardholders and claim that unusual transactions are being made on their card. During the conversation the fraudster asks the cardholder to confirm the account number, address and the three-digit security number on the back of the card.

Both Visa and MasterCard are warning card holders not to divulge such information over the phone. If in doubt, a card holder should verify the identity of the person calling them by arranging to ring back on their usual customer services number.