Editor’s note: This is the latest entry in a yearlong series on protecting yourself against fraud. You can read additional posts about fraud here.
As the holidays approach, you’ll want to be extra careful about fraud. You don’t want to turn the happiest time of the year into a disaster, and unfortunately, scammers don’t take the holidays off.
Let’s start with protecting your credit card information:
- Use contactless payments when possible to avoid skimmers, especially at gas pumps.
- Never leave your card in an unsecured place, like your car.
- Don’t store your PIN with your card.
- Don’t use your card for online purchases that sound too good to be true.
- Don’t trust ads on social media sites. Again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
We’ve talked about this one a lot lately, but it bears repeating:
Be wary of anyone who contacts you and claims to be an Avadian employee.
Remember, we will never contact you without your initiating a service call and ask for any of the following:
- Your full card number
- Your card’s expiration date or security code
- Your PIN
- Your online banking log in and password
- One-time passcodes
If you ever receive a call from someone claiming to be an Avadian employee and you’re unsure whether the call is legit, simply hang up and dial 1.888.AVADIAN (1.888.282.3426), entering the numbers yourself. Because it’s possible for scammers to “spoof” a phone number, what looks like an Avadian number on your caller ID may be fake and returning that call without entering the numbers yourself could put you back in contact with them.
Check back next month for more tips on protecting your identity and your financial life.
Equal Housing Opportunity Lender