Beware of Holiday Gift Card and Credit Card Scams @McAfeeConsumer

Tonight on Nightline, buyer beware. 'Tis the season for credit card fraud, so we'll tell you if it's safer to use plastic online or in the store and reveal the shocking truth about all those gift cards you're buying. Their lessons straight from the top-secret bunker where Visa is monitoring every purchase this week.

From the global resources of ABC News, with Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden, and Bill Weir in New York City. This is Nightline, December 21st, 2011.

Good evening, I'm Bill Weir. It's a move many perfect this time of year, the old credit card swipe, turning over a mountain of financial details with the flick of a wrist. And to keep you swiping and their bottom line growing, credit card companies have to maintain your trust. Trust that they are smarter than any hacker, phisher, or sketchy clerk. And to that end, Visa gave us unprecedented glimpse into their fortress of security. And a few tips to stay one step ahead of the crooks. Here's ABC's Cecilia Vega.

'Tis the season for credit card fraud. For all kinds of people to find all kinds of ways to steal your credit and spend it. Last year, about 8 million Americans were victims, almost half of those due to stolen credit information. And it doesn't end there. You might not realize it, but one of the cards most vulnerable to credit theft are Are those gift cards everyone loves to give and get. Thieves find them easy to steal, and it's entirely possible that when the recipient goes to use the gift card you've given, there won't be any money left on it.

When they see a gift card on a display, what they'll often do is they can skim the information off of the back of the magnetic strip, and once they do that, they have enough information about that card that they can go ahead and, uh, place an order over the internet or even over the phone They can also clone that card and use it at any retailer.

And while most of us believe that online shopping makes us more susceptible to fraud, we learned that using cards in stores is actually a greater risk.

In general, you're more protected using a credit card on the internet, whereas when you walk into a brick-and-mortar retailer, you're handing that credit card to a human. Humans steal. And so when you hand it to them, they can easily skim the information off that card and use it for fraudulent activities.

If you're worried, so are the credit card companies. And so Nightline gained first-time-ever access to a top-secret facility where one company, Visa, has been watching every single swipe getting made this holiday season. I'm here to see what you've got behind the doors here. A facility so top secret it doesn't appear on Google Maps, and we're not allowed to tell you where it is. You're my tour guide.

Not your tour guide. You're going in alone, actually.

I had to pass through more security here than I do when I'm covering the White house.

And it has motion sensors, cameras, and everything else in there.

Should I be nervous?

I wouldn't be.

Mike Dreyer is Visa's global head of technology. He takes me through the first line of defense, what Visa calls the man trap. No one makes it through without a special badge and a fingerprint to match. That's because what lies on the other side is a hacker's dream and an identity theft victim's nightmare. And the heart of one of the country's largest credit and debit card companies is is revealed. How many transactions are going on right now as we speak?

Uh, just almost 8,000 transactions a second.

And that's globally?

That's globally.

And they're all being processed right here through this? They all come through this data center. Employees here spend their days fixated on this wall of monitors, watching everything from the news to the weather, looking for any glitch, any abnormality that could bring it all crashing down. Hence the need for mantrap number 2, a concrete room with motion detectors, a camera on the ceiling that reads handwriting on scraps of paper. It even has radio frequencies that can catch anyone trying to bring in a forbidden cell phone. And what happens if someone tries to bring that phone in?

You won't be getting out the other end. Hence the name.

The man trap. There's a man on the other side. There are enough cables inside to stretch all the way from Maine to Key West. And remember that credit card swipe? Before it's even done, before you walk out with your purchase, the transactions are routed into this room. When I swipe my credit card and I'm buying I'm getting charged for it?

This is one of the areas where it comes through so we can actually send to the stakeholders the information they need to handle their clients.

There are a lot of eyes watching.

In the exterior, there's about 400 cameras. Interior, I'll keep that to myself.

A lot.

A lot. A lot.

More than 400?

A lot.

The building is strong enough to withstand a major earthquake or a tornado.. It has its own water treatment system and generates enough power to support 25,000 homes. You've got a moat.

Yes.

You've got multiple layers of fences to keep people out.

Yes.

I saw cameras almost every 5 feet inside this building. There are security guards. You're not getting in here. Is all this necessary?

It is necessary. It's necessary to keep your transactions safe and secure.

The power goes out, batteries kick in, generators after that. And so far, so good. All the precautions some might call it paranoia, have paid off. Human or otherwise, nothing has managed to put a dent in Visa's armor.

It is something that we want to make sure that, uh, that you don't have to think about as you're using that card. You know that that card is safe and secure.

But while Visa might be secure, the average shopper should still know how to keep their plastic protected. So we asked identity theft expert Robert Siciliano for some tips for those last-minute gift cards.

If you buy gift cards, I recommend buying them at, say, a mall kiosk where one person behind that counter is responsible for administering that card. When using your own plastic, you have to pay very close attention to your credit card statement and refute any unauthorized charges within a 60-day period of time. And when shopping online, the most important thing to do is to make sure that the website they're using is a secure one. That means that in the address bar where it says HTTP, it should say HTTPS. That means it's a secure encrypted site.

And if all else fails, contact your credit card company. Just don't expect to get through the front doors. For Nightline, I'm Cecilia Vega reporting— well, like I said, I can't tell you where.