Financial Systems: How Connected Are They?

Posted April 24th, 2014 09:15:51 am by Bill Frymire

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Financial Systems are complex creatures. Even the people that run them seem to know only about their part of the larger system. How can one person integrate and protect themselves and their information in an ever growing and constantly changing set of numbers?

There are so many different types of scamming, but the fastest growing is the sale of information online, like last Christmas when Target had a major data breach and some banks security departments actually bought back their customer’s data so they could trace where it had been compromised. A security analyst for a major credit card company actually said that it is very common to have your card used for purchases that are not yours, and it is only through monitoring the accounts that banks can detect fraudulent charges – unfortunately, around Christmas “Everything looks like fraud because people are going out and buying thousand dollar flatscreens.”

Forbes confirmed that there was nothing that customers who used cards at a Target could have done to protect that data. But there are a few things that you can do in your regular trips to the bank or ATM. These tips may not save you from data loss, but they might help you feel a little more in control, and in our fast paced world, a little bit of control seems to give a big sense of peace sometimes.

1. Obviously, don’t use ATMs that are located in strange places – they might be fake. Cover your pinpad even when you’re alone – sometimes thieves will install a “skimming” device that reads the magnetic strip of your card and then place a small covert camera above the pinpad to obtain your pin number. In this way they can easily manufacture “dummy” cards. Of course, this won’t help you much if the bank machine has a false pad on top of the true pad that is designed to record your pin.

Try and use your own bank’s machines, and use the same machines consistently. Make sure you know what they look like, and this will make it easier to determine if there are added skimming devices. If you don’t have a good visual memory, take a photo with your cameraphone that you can check each time you use that machine. There’s nothing else to do in line anyway!

If you do think that there might be a device attached, don’t use the machine – call your bank and let them know, and then try a different branch. These are not foolproof techniques, but they will provide a little added peace of mind.

The other thing you can do is consistently check your online accounts. The faster you notify your bank of any strange purchases, the quicker they can shut the card down and issue you a new one. If you get in the habit of a quick check over your daily purchases, you may sleep a little easier knowing you have taken all the precautions you can.

Here’s a link that has a few more tips on how to protect yourself from fraud.

And of course for the truly paranoid, there’s always a trip to the bank teller to get a big wad of cash, which contains no data to compromise at all!

Have you experienced credit card fraud? It’s more and more common as thieves look for new ways to recoup losses from the chip-and-pin system that has now been put into place. Let me know in the comments about your experiences.