According to a recent report, a large number of consumers have become victims of credit and debit card fraud in the past few weeks. The report suggests that credit card scams have become a common problem in the midstate. The police departments are being flooded with fraud reports. As such, the financial institutions are warning consumers to use their cards cautiously.

Consumers hit by credit and debit card scam

According to Macon police department, more than 50 workers at Robins Air Force Base have been victimized by the credit card scammers. It is said that the accounts of these workers have been hacked in August 2010, after using plastic cards on base. The con artists are aiming at the accounts of the credit and debit card holders. Therefore, the police departments are advising people to use cash for financial transactions wherever possible.

The representatives at the Robins Federal Credit Union have revealed that around 2000 customers have become victimized by the credit card scammers in the beginning of 2010. The financial institutions are working to help the victimized consumers as much as possible. Consumers are now thinking twice before using credit cards. Most of them are saying that they will use cash or ATM cards for shopping from now on.

According to the financial institutions, 2 main types of credit card scams are happening nowadays. The first one is PIN-based where the con artists are somehow getting access to consumers' personal identification number and exhausting credit limit. The second one is the non-PIN based where the con artists are getting access to consumer's credit/debit card number, expiry date, security data and draining the funds. The consumers are not even aware about the theft till they try to use the cards for making any financial transaction.

The financial industry reports that the total loss associated with debit/credit card scams is around billions of dollars. But what is alarming to know is that the financial institutions still don't have a clue about how to tackle the entire situation.

It is said that one of the most effective ways to avoid being victimized by the credit card scammers is home banking. Through home banking, consumers can easily check their accounts online. However, having said so, financial experts report that even the best systems can't always protect the account holders from being victimized by the scammers. This is because the scammers are always finding new ways to hack the accounts of the card holders.