“It didn’t go through.” The dreaded words no one wants to hear while making a purchase, as others wait in line behind you to make a purchase. Sadly, that is often how victims of fraud find out their credit cards have been hacked and maxed out and all of their money is gone. After it has already happened. It even happened to the famous rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, Sharon Osbourne while attempting to buy a birthday present for their daughter. No one is exempt.

Osbourne revealed, “Someone rang up charges and maxed out Ozzy’s card and my card. I called through to the credit card company, and they go, ‘No, no, no, you’re maxed out, so is Ozzy.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t go to that store, or to that store.’”

The good news is, there are effective ways to make it through your credit from being stolen and prevent it from ever happening again.

First things first

Osborne revealed that she did work with the credit card company on the fraudulent charges.  That’s an excellent first step to take. Once you notice suspicious activity, report it immediately to your bank or financial institution to prevent any further theft.

If your credit, ATM, or debit card is lost or stolen, federal law limits your liability for unauthorized charges. If someone uses your lost or stolen credit card before you report it missing to the card issuer, you can only be held responsible for $50 of any fraudulent charge. If you report the loss before the card is used, you’re not responsible for any charges, nor are you liable if it’s just the card number that’s stolen and used.

Prevent theft from happening to you

You should consider changing your online passwords and PINs regularly. It’s more work to track multiple credentials, but it’s worth the effort to prevent fraudsters from hacking your accounts. Be sure not to use the same password repeatedly, as “credential stuffing” is something fraudster can attempt. Once they hack one of your accounts, they try the same username and passwords on other websites hoping to gain more access to your personal finances. Sophisticated fraudsters can run programs that automate logins because they know time is of the essence.

Do you look at your bank statements, investments, and track your online accounts daily? If you don’t, or you don’t have time to, remember that there is software that can do that for you. Time is of the essence when it comes to digital fraud, so using digital software that is faster than the criminals, is your wisest choice. If you do have time, keep a close eye on all of your statements, and if you notice signs of fraud, notify your bank immediately.

It’s a good idea to get a copy of your credit report since signs of fraud, like new accounts you don’t recognize, can show up on the report before your information has been compromised. Actively monitoring your credit report and your identity is an important step, so you can act quickly if you’ve become a victim.

Here are some additional steps you can take to reduce credit card fraud:

• Monitor your account activity each day and set up spending alerts, so you’re notified as soon as something looks amiss.

• Check to see if your credit card offers a virtual number, which you can change each time you make a purchase to protect your account.

• Be very careful with giving out your email address, including when you are enticed with a promo code.  Barnes & Noble’s data breach exposed customers’ personal information, including transaction history and email addresses, along with erasing e-reader Nook libraries. Every link in an email or a too-good-to-be-true deal on an unfamiliar website might be an attempt to harvest credit card details or other personal information – stay alert.

Whether you’ve already been a victim of identity theft or you want to be proactive about staying safe from fraud, you should always keep updated on your credit activity through the use of the most powerful software available. The best program does the work for you so you don’t have to worry. For more information, visit https://creditmonitoringservices123.com/.