 TITLE: How Do Credit Card Companies Investigate Fraud? CONTENT: What Fraud Protection Features Do Credit Cards Provide?\n-------------------------------------------------------\nPreventing credit card fraud can help save merchants and credit card issuers money, build trust among cardholders and keep you from having to wait for a new card. In short, it's a win-win for everyone.\nCredit card issuers use a variety of measures to stop fraud from happening. These can range from physical features built into your card to complex artificial intelligence systems that detect and decline unusual transactions (a high-dollar purchase made at a store hundreds of miles from where you live, for instance).\nAs a cardholder, you could look for a card or issuer that offers:\n*   **EMV chips**: Cards with EMV chips are now fairly standard. EMV chips can add an extra level of protection compared to swiping a card's magnetic strip, but they may still be susceptible to card shimming—when a device gets put into a card terminal and copies your card's information while it's inserted.\n*   **Contactless cards**: Tapping a card or using a mobile device with a digital wallet can be even safer than swiping or inserting your card. Many popular credit cards from major issuers, including the Chase Freedom Unlimited® come with contactless payments enabled and work with popular digital wallets.\n*   **Virtual card numbers**: Credit card issuers may let you create a virtual card number to use when shopping online, keeping your card's actual information a secret. You can find this feature on some Citi and Capital One cards, including the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.\n*   **Card lock**: Locking a credit card can temporarily stop it from being used for new purchases, which can be nice if you can't find your card but don't want to go through the process of canceling it and waiting for a replacement. It's sometimes called \"freezing\" rather than locking, which lets you temporarily freeze your account online or with the mobile app.\nThere are also credit card fraud prevention measures that could be taking place without you noticing.\nFor example, before a transaction gets approved, it may be assigned a risk score based on the time of day, transaction amount, card's transaction history, the location of your mobile phone and other variables. The merchant can decide whether to approve or deny transactions depending on their risk scores. And online purchases may be scrutinized based on additional information, such as the purchaser's IP address, email host, shipping address and order details. END