Tip 1 in an occasional series. Keep visiting regularly for more Online Shopping Safety Tips.

Using only one credit card – and then one with only a small, controlled limit – means damage limitation. Use of one credit card will not prevent online fraud, but will limit the damage that stolen details can do. Credit cards often allow you to claim back funds that were taken from the card fraudulently (though you need to check with your card issuer on this point), and this may help in getting back most if not all of the stolen money.

Using more than one cards, or a debit card, means that the amount of money the perpetrators are able to get their hands on grows greatly. Pre-paid credit cards may be an excellent way to limit the amount of money you could potentially loose.

If you can’t stop the fraud in the first place, then the next best solution is to limit the damage it can do.