Companies Fight Back Against Fraud

Yesterday, I received a call from the "Awards Department" informing me I won $25,000! Gee, isn't that great? I didn't even enter a contest but I won anyway. It's disturbing but each day roughly 156 million phishing scams are sent out via email and 80,000 people respond by giving out their personal information.

A particularly disturbing spin on this has been the recent IRS impersonations. The scam goes something like this. The victim receives a call claiming they owe money and threatening imprisonment unless the person makes immediate payment. Like many of these scams, the money is wired outside the country and beyond U.S. jurisdiction. The problem has become so bad that EBAY has actually sent undercover agents outside the country to trace scams involving automobile purchases.

While no home or office is safe, Discover is rolling out a new card that allows you to freeze the card when it is not in use. Unlike total deactivation, the card can be reactivated at the click of a button making it possible for the user to minimize the chance of theft. Discoverer also allows auto-payments that have already been established to continue even when the card is frozen ensuring regular payments are still made. Although no fraud protection service is perfect, innovative solutions like this provide at least some protection against con artists. Nevertheless, no one can ever afford to let their guard down as crooks will always find new ways to fool even the most experienced users.