Credit Card Fraud Protection: Smart Steps to Stay Secure in 2025

Learn practical, up-to-date tactics to prevent credit card fraud in 2025 — from scam spotting and secure payments to the best tools for monitoring and recovery.

Hello，

I'm Ceacer, and next I'll share how to prevent your credit card from being fraudulently used in 2025.

I. Online Shopping

If you plan to shop on a website, you first need to determine if the website is safe. How do you check?

1. Check the domain registration date. Scam websites usually use new domains. If the website you are visiting has a new domain and contains thousands or even more products...

How to check the website registration date?

Enter the domain name you want to check, such as: ceacer.com, into https://who.is/

Our domain was registered on October 12th. It's a very new domain. Of course, we don't sell anything, so you can safely access our website.

If the shopping website you're visiting has a very short registration history and its product prices are unusually high compared to other websites, this indicates that the website you're visiting is a scam or a website that steals credit cards. Please stop visiting immediately and report it to Google.

Finally, note: Most websites don't use Cloudflare CDN because their e-commerce websites usually have high-end configurations and don't need to deliberately use this server's IP. If you find a website using Cloudflare CDN,

be very wary.

2. The Program the Website Uses

Most websites that steal credit cards use WordPress because WordPress allows for the creation of any plugins to meet the needs of scammers. Conversely, SaaS platforms don't allow for custom plugin creation, but developers can upload plugins, which is also a factor. It's unavoidable.

However, from what I understand, SaaS platforms are mainly involved in scams. They don't deliver the goods. When you buy products from a SaaS platform, you won't receive anything, or you'll receive small items like drumsticks, clips, phone cases—basically, lightweight products that aren't what you ordered. Highly fraudulent SaaS platforms include Shopyy, Shopline, and Dianjiang. Shopify is also included, but while Shopify is considered relatively safe, it's not 100% secure.

WordPress

They usually use the same templates. They collect products from official websites like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Poshmark, and Mercari, and upload them to WordPress in bulk. The number of products typically ranges from 1000 to 7000.

Note that these products often have unique identifiers before or after the title, a common practice to differentiate their websites. Their prices are usually 30%-50% cheaper than the official website.

Their addresses and phone numbers are randomly found on Google Maps. While the addresses may be real, the websites are fake. If you carefully examine their privacy policies, terms of service, shipping details, and delivery information, you'll be surprised to find they're utterly nonsensical.

Because they create these websites in bulk, they don't have the time to modify them. You can send an email to their website's contact email address, and you'll get an error message saying "Incorrect address, delivery not possible." You can also send a message to their phone number or add them on WhatsApp; you'll find that you're not contacting the same person. A genuine website would do these things properly; they would use real email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses.

Furthermore, their payment methods are not official. When you click to pay, you'll be redirected to a third-party payment platform, something like this.

When I clicked the payment button, I was redirected to a third-party payment page.

It showed that the payment plugin used was a third-party plugin called "fortune_redirect_pay".

Fortune_redirect_pay is not an official WooCommerce payment plugin; it's a custom-developed plugin. This plugin steals your credit card information, and as mentioned above, they won't ship your order.

You'll either receive nothing or some small items like drumsticks, clips, or phone cases—basically, lightweight products—not the actual product you ordered.

SaaS Platforms

SaaS platforms primarily do not handle product fulfillment. When you purchase a product, they will not ship it. Their main traffic source is Google Shopping Ads. They apply for Google Merchant accounts and then run Google Shopping ads. These ads usually cost over $100 because they require real money to run, hence the higher price. However, they are 20%-30% cheaper than official website products, and sometimes even 20%-30% more expensive.

Currently, the main products targeted by Google Shopping ad scams include: lawnmowers, tractors, gazebos, various electric drills, toy cars, electric vehicles, etc.

SaaS platforms do not accept direct payments; they redirect through other websites.

This is a Google Shopping ad referral link containing ?gad_source=

For example: I use https://a.com/product/0001/?gad_source=xxx to apply for a Google Merchant account and run Google Ads,

Then, I configure my website to redirect to https://b.com/product/0001/?gad_source=xxx if the source is Google Ads.

Before visiting a website, check its domain name and see if it redirects to another website. If clicking on the link leads to a different domain, it is 100% a scam website, and you should stop visiting it immediately!