Protect yourself from credit card fraud

Almost half a million Australians were the victim of identity theft last year and there are a number of ways to protect yourself, your identity and your hard-earned cash, it has emerged.

Credit card holders are being urged by FatCat to buy a shredder and destroy bank statements and other financial information when disposing of it.

Web surfers should also invest in anti-virus, firewall and spyware software to keep their computer as secure as possible and be careful of inadvertently importing malware.

FatCat also recommends that people opt out of allowing their details to be passed onto third parties when signing up for anything.

Do not reply to emails that appear to come from a bank or credit card company asking for your passwords as this is likely to be a scam known as phishing.

Consumers are also being urged to be careful with social networking sites, blogs and wiki's, as well as opening spam.

When buying online, users are being urged to always check for the security padlock symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the screen to safeguard their identity and their money.

According to the Australian Consumer's Association, of the estimated 499,500 victims of identity fraud in Australia last year, 383,000 were incidences of credit or bank card fraud.

The association has revealed that 124,000 people had their identities stolen with many not having a clue how the fraudsters got hold of their details or whether their information is still being used.

See the latest on the new Woolworths credit card.

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