Watchout fraudsters are watching your credit card

In Canada, a highly drilled scheme of fraudsters cloned credit cards in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto netted over $2 million within a year. The fraud constituted layers of people with vendor terminal cloned by fraud agents and credit cards copied, reproduced and distributed to another group of fraudsters who withdrew cash through multiple transactions from several ATM in various cities. Though the police dragnet caught up with the culprits it can not be ascertained the whether credit and debit cards are a hundred per cent free from fraudsters' long arm.
A man who may have stolen as much as $70,000 a week by slithering beneath theater seats while movies were playing and lifting credit cards from women’s’ pocketbooks was convicted Monday of fraud and identity theft crimes. Anthony Johnson, 49, and a string of accomplices used the stolen cards to collect thousands of dollars in cash advances from Connecticut’s gambling casinos and to make tens of thousands of dollars more in retail purchases. On a “good” weekend, Johnson collected $50,000 to $70,000 from the scheme, one of his accomplices testified last week at his trial at U.S. District Court in Hartford. He had to settle for $30,000 or $40,000 on a bad weekend, the accomplice said.

Holiday shoppers immersed in a credit card frenzy

Online shopping has grown sharply so far this holiday shopping season after U.S. retailers pushed out a slew of mobile and Internet deals that lured consumers before Cyber Monday, traditionally the biggest day for e-commerce in America. In Canada, it was a copycat event as shoppers stormed various mall and crowded cyber sapce for top deals. this signs the beginning of an year end season spending spree which which will see credit card swiping and keying increase.
While it remains to be seen if the gains on the american Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday can be sustained, across the border the latest estimates show shoppers scooping up early special offers via their smart phones and tablets, the way they used to hunt for bargains in brick-and-mortar stores.
Online sales increased 17.4 percent on Thanksgiving and 20.7 percent on Black Friday, compared with 2011, according to IBM Smarter Commerce, a unit of International Business Machines Corp that analyzes transactions from 500 U.S. retailers.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, had traditionally been the kickoff to the holiday season for stores. This year, retailers such as Walmart and Target (Berlin: DYH.BE - news) made their biggest push ever with special offers during the holiday itself.