'Tis the season for scams.
Niagara Regional Police warning they've seen an increase in fraudulent transactions involving credit cards.
Given the concerns with COVID-19, many business transactions are being conducted by telephone or email preventing businesses from knowing their customers.
Fraudsters are taking advantage of the situation and making purchases by credit card, without being physically present at a store.
The NRP are out with a number of suggestions to reduce credit card scams.
Tips to reduce card not present scams:
Merchants
Collect as much customer information as possible
Verify the phone number, address and transaction information
Examine priority shipment requests
Validate orders from repeat customers that differ from the established pattern
Question orders that are to be shipped out of province or a post office box
Customers
Regularly review your account statements
If your credit card is lost/stolen, report it immediately
Do not provide credit card information over the phone, if you did not initiate the phone call
Ensure webpages are encrypted
If you have been a victim of a scam and experienced a financial loss, please call the Niagara Regional Police Service at 905-688-4111 "dispatch", to report it.
If you did not experience a financial loss, please report it by contacting the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm