August 29, 2005

A question that is frequently asked regarding the safety of using your over the Internet, is whether it is covered by your card issuer for any online fraud that maybe committed, the answer is YES, as in the UK your credit card will be covered in the same way as it would be if you were using your credit card over the phone.

There is no difference from some one stealing your credit card details and using them normally, as in the real world, than there is when someone steals your credit card details and uses them over the Internet, the principal is the same and your credit card issuer issues the same level of cover for both circumstances.

So how does online fraud happen?

Well it basically works the same way as normal fraud, were you may buy into something or purchase goods and the company that you have trusted with your credit card details, takes the money and then uses the card details to siphon more of the cash from your credit card, that the credit limit will allow.

Other forms of cover will include purchasing goods from a firm or company that closes or shuts down before you have received your goods, therefore, you being left out of pocket, or if you do actually receive your purchase, to find that is broken, damaged or simply not the goods that you thought that you were buying.

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Though some credit card companies go out of they’re way to tell you that they are giving you online fraud protection as if they are doing it out of the goodness of they’re heart and as a favour to you to buy into they’re credit card, the fact of the matter is that due to the Consumer Credit Act of 1974 and the Euro E-Commerce Directive of 2002 are there to protect the consumer when they use their, meaning you are already protected against fraud, for which ever way you use your card, either in a normal transaction or over the Internet.

So what happens if you do find that you have been a victim of online credit card fraud?

Well firstly I would like to say is that you should always use sites that are secure, you will usually be able to see this, as you will find a padlock sign on the site page that states this, because if you contact your credit card company and they find that the site was not secure, they can argue that some if not all of the blame lies with you.

So all costs will be have to be covered by you, so you should always make sure that you don’t do anything that leaves you liable for the fraud happening in the first place.