FRAUD PREVENTION What to do if you are a victim of identity theft Have you ever had your credit card lost, misplaced, or stolen? It happens. Do you ever find yourself nervous that your credit card account number is vulnerable to being compromised? You’re not alone. Have you ever received a call from a mysterious person or company trying to sell you insurance for your credit card? Beware. Credit Unions incur millions of dollars in losses each year due to lost, stolen, and counterfeit cards. From simple crimes like petty theft to complicated international counterfeiting rings, fraud continues to be a problem in the credit card industry. METRO Federal Credit Union (MFCU) uses several fraud prevention technologies to help protect your Visa card accounts from fraud. Card Activation…You may have already noticed that a call from your home phone number is required to activate your credit cards. If you’re not calling from home, a representative will ask detailed information to verify your account. Daily Spending Limits… Each Visa account is limited in the number of authorizations allowed on a given day. If your card is stolen, this will deter a spending rampage. If an invalid personal identification number (PIN) is attempted three times in one day, the account will be completely blocked for the next 24 hours. Expiration Date Mismatch… If a merchant swipes an expired card or manually / electronically keys an inaccurate expiration date, the transaction will be declined. This includes any reoccurring monthly or yearly charges to the account (the charge may be declined if the merchant is not informed of your new expiration date). Expiration date mismatch helps prevent loss on counterfeit cards. Fraud Neural Network…This network tracks the spending pattern of each Visa card account. If any authorization or charge appears to be out of your ordinary spending pattern, the network will attempt to call you. If you can not be reached, a temporary block is placed on the account to prevent any potentially fraudulent transactions. It is important that the credit card department is notified if you plan to travel or use your card for a purchase that is “out of the ordinary.” If MFCU is not notified, your account may be blocked. METRO Federal Credit Union is committed to provide optimum convenience and customer service, while using every technology available to protect your account against fraud. Balancing convenience and fraud prevention can be a tricky process. From time to time an account may be blocked for unusual activity when a cardholder is taking a trip, or a merchant may key in the wrong expiration date causing an embarrassing transaction rejection. Please be aware of our fraud prevention systems, and notify us of any charges that you plan to make that may be considered “unusual.” Notify any merchants that automatically charge your account (monthly or annually) of your expiration date change to prevent decline. Verify that a merchant is using the correct expiration date for manually keyed transactions. If you have any questions about our fraud prevention systems, please call the Credit Card Department at 1(800) 325-3678. Beware of the fraudsters, and together we can stop them in their tracks. Here are some simple “do’s” and “don’ts” that can help keep the risk of being taken advantage of to a minimum. *
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