"There's a whole army of fraudsters who would love to access that information"
ID fraud protection
The internet is a fantastic shopping resource, but people are naturally still uneasy about uploading their financial details on to a website – no matter how secure it seems to be. There's a whole army of fraudsters who would love to access that information. When you combine this with the details of your day-to-day life that you might be obliviously posting on social media sites, you can see how identity theft is such a growing crime.
Credit cards may seem like an easy target. After all, a thief would only need that big number across the front and they could use your account to go on a shopping spree, right?
Happily, credit card providers are very much on the ball when it comes to how and when your credit card is used. Most will monitor your account for suspicious activity and will contact you if there are transactions that don't fit in with your usual spending patterns. However, this is not a failsafe so it's important to check your statements, and report missing credit cards as soon as you realise.
ID fraud protection should come automatically with a credit card, just as long as it can't be proved you were negligent in letting a thief have vital information (especially PIN numbers, which you should never, ever share). However, some credit card providers offer an added layer of protection in the form of a service that alerts you when changes are made to your credit record.
The best protection against ID fraud is to be vigilant at all times. As a general rule of thumb, if something seems too good to be true, double check.