Act quickly and have expert legal advice will be your best weapons to fight against the fraudulent use of your credit card.
Having a credit card continues to be a common practice despite the increasingly modern payment formulas for. Online shopping and even the commerce of a lifetime. The ‘plastic’ money, as the traditional credit card is commonly known, is not, however, without risk.
The types of internet scams change almost as fast as new technologies do, although, broadly, the two main groups of internet scams are divided into card-not-present and card-present. The first are those in which the credit card information is stolen and illegally used without the need for it to physically exist. In many cases, access to the data is done through false emails from the bank or payment platforms that argue problems with the credit card to collect information such as passwords and the like, which is known as phishing . The other formula, less and less frequent, consists of the copy of the credit card’s own data that, later, are used to charge unrealized purchases.
Consumer rights
If you are a victim of a fraudulent use of your credit card information, you should know that the Payment Services Law protects you and protects the rights of the consumer. However, differences are established depending on whether a copy of the card has been made or the fraud is the result of theft or loss of the card.
In the first case, the bank assumes the losses since, as a user, you are still the holder of the credit card and there is no way of knowing that the scam is being carried out online until the moment you identify the movements suspected of unauthorized operations.
On the contrary, if the fraud of an online purchase or of any other type has to do with loss or theft, you must act immediately and communicate it as soon as possible. The reason? As simple as that you will be responsible (up to a limit of € 150) for the expenses until you transfer the situation.
How to report a scam online?
If you have suspicions or a fraudulent online purchase confirmation, you have to remedy as soon as possible to minimize the impact of the online scam. The first step is to contact the bank to block the card, although most financial institutions currently give the option of ‘turning off’ the credit card in case of loss, theft or copying of the data. In the event that it is a theft and an illegal use of the data has been detected, it is necessary to file a report for scam, including reporting the website in question if we are clear that it has been in a particular online purchase.
The usual thing is that financial institutions respond, up to a certain limit, in many of the internet scams although, if they do not do so, there are other ways to claim. One of them is customer service and, if there is no response or you do not agree with it, you can always continue the procedures in the Market Conduct Department.
An expert legal advisor can help you exhaust all existing avenues to recover the amounts for which you have been the victim of an online scam.
Virtual cards
The protection of consumer rights, financial institutions or the reputation of online stores has resulted in the appearance of a wide range of alternatives to the traditional credit card. The formulas seek to avoid the main scams related to online shopping with this payment system. One of the systems that have been gaining positions in internet purchases is the so-called virtual cards commonly known as CVV. It’s a 3 digit code at the back of credit card and is also bought online on CVV Shops.
Its operation is as simple as it is effective and, in practice, they are mere supports for payment that is; they act as a kind of prepaid card, exposing only the amount destined for the payment in question. Many banks have this type of virtual credit card, that is, a card to buy online that, although it does not prevent fraud on the Internet, it does minimize risks. In any case, despite the different security measures implemented by the websites dedicated to online shopping or the financial institutions themselves to prevent fraud on the Internet, this type of illegal practice continues to be a threat to the user. Having legal advice when the time comes to have to resolve the question of how to report a scam online is the best guarantee to protect your money and to know in detail what the steps to follow to recover it are.
