Protecting Yourself from Online Fraud in 2016

LONDON, December 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Throughout this year, the news headlines have reported that several British businesses - including certain major service providers and retailers - encountered security breaches to their customer databases.

Resultantly, the relationships between checking credit scores and online fraud and checking credit scores and identity theft got the spotlight, as the mainstream media advised the British public to see if their credit score was affected.

This is because a sudden drop in credit scores, particularly to those who have had a consistently high credit score up until the breach had occurred, could serve as an indicator to the customer if they have been affected by the breach or if their identities were being used for unsolicited monetary gains.

The Payment Card Information Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) have announced that stronger measures are on their way so that the security levels of payment data become so inaccessible to online fraudsters that they are discouraged to acquire it.

However, until these advances see fruition, the rest of us have to do our best to keep important information - e.g. our personal details and payment data - protected from online fraud.

Jenny Walker, Product Marketing Manager at MyCreditMonitor, believes that there are some steps that we can take as consumers to help prevent online fraud from affecting our lifestyle choices, such as shopping, banking and managing finances online.

She says: "For every genuine website out there, there may be several that are not. It's therefore important for consumers to ensure that the website you are on starts its address with 'https' as opposed to 'http', because the 's' stands for 'secure' and also for a golden padlock sign that should preface the web address. These indicate that the website is digitally encrypted.

Be extra careful when opening emails that have attachments from unknown senders, as opening them may activate malware or spyware that can leave your personal data at the risk of being exposed.

The MyCreditMonitor team have produced various guides that are available on the website to help customers be aware of online fraud and to stay protected online."

For more information, please visit: http://www.MyCreditMonitor.co.uk

CONTACT DETAILS:
Sudakshina Bhattacharjee
Content Marketing Executive, MyCreditMonitor
Email: mcm@affinioninternational.com      
Tel: +44-(0)1753-828-195
Mobile: +44-(0)79202-60098