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Credit cards use in internet...how safe.???
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I am about to buy some clothes via an internet site and they need my credit card numbers.I know the subject isnt new but I was wondering how safe this procedure is....Please advise!
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I also used to book my flight tickets via my card with the easyjet .I didnt have problems but i've heard a lot of stories with hackers and ilegally use of the credit cards thats why i'm a little worried:rolleyes:
If the site doesn't look so hot can you see a "Which? Web trader" thing anywhere? It's round and mostly red. Anything with that symbol on will be fine. Some smaller companies use things like WorldPay for paying so any of those will be solid as a rock.
I've been buying stuff from the net and interactive TV for years and never had any problems. I've bought T shirts, games and even built a computer out of components bought on the net! The family even bought a TV on the net, flights for two holidays, accomadation for those two holidays as well as a rent-a-car.
Internet shopping is safe. It's just a few horror stories go round in the papers and it makes people think twice.
Just out of interest what site is it?
Anyway, I shop online with As Seen On Screen quite a lot and havent had any problems
A secured site, ones where the payment detail pages show the padlock bottom-right, use a highly effective public key encryption system to transmit any of your personal details.
Phoning a shop to order something uses an open phone line and people in the vicinity can hear your details as you read them out loud off your card.
Both systems are most vulnerable the other end, depending on where your details are kept. For instance an insurance company I paid once left my bloody details written on a piece of paper on a desk in the office.
I've never had a complaint about a web site purchase and I have probably made a few hundred ranging from dvd's and groceries to a freezer, tv and dvd player. Oh and I use online banking.
There ARE people going to a lot of trouble to steal your details but a half decent site won't fall over from attack.
Still not secure though.
The point I was trying to make was that if someone wanted to badly enough, they could get your credit card details - secured site or not.
In saying that however, it's very unlikely that someone will target your details to steal, and use.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/04/21/foreign/BILLVIAG.HTM
You should feel safer giving your details to a reputable company online than that restaurant where they take your card out the back, swipe the details to their pc with a card reader before returning you the bill to sign. That's the nature of the biggest type of creit card fraud.
I think that's a bit unfair. I don't consider an online transaction over a secure net channel to be "very lax" protection at all. In order for someone to intercept that transaction they have to circumvent somehow the 128 bit encryption that, until a couple of years ago, the US classed as a military weapon.
I think that the most insecure part of a web transaction is whatever happens to the number at the other end, over which you have limited control. But you have the same lack of control over what happens to your card number if you give it over the phone or hand the card over to some guy in a restaurant.
All in all, if the transaction is on a secure channel - you have the little padlock symbol on the page - and the retailer looks genuine then go for it. Some card companies like Egg even offer a no internet fraud guarantee anyway.