- Discussion board

A LOT OF WEBSITES OFFER THEIR CUSTOMERS WITH THE OPTION OF MAKING PAYMENT THROUGH THE INTERNET BY ENTERING THE DETAILS OF THEIR CREDIT CARD .WHAT ARE THE PITFALLS WITH SUCH TYPE OF SYSTEMS? WHAT ARE THE STANDARD OF SECURITY FOR CUSTOMERS ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH TYPE OF TRANSACTIONS?

Are you talking about all e-commerce sites, basically?

In my (private) opinion, this is a list of things to remember:

1) The site HAS to be secure when you are entering your info (a quick way to tell is to see whether the "padlock" icon of your IE is on. it is located on the bottom bar, in the rightmost of those 3 square areas). That just guarantees that your credit card info travels from your browser to the site you are using in an encrypted form. That doesn't guarantee anything about how it's going to be used.

2) There are sites that SAVE your credit card and there are sites that just authorize one transaction and then discard it. The second is better (unless you expect to buy from the site a lot), but it's not always easy to tell for a particular site what the case is...

3) NON-PHYSICAL PRODUCTS: There are sites that charge you for "membership" (especially if you're not buying a physical product, but access to information or a subscription of some sort) and do it on a regular basis. This should all be made clear in advance - whether the membership is recurring or onetime (non-recurring).

4) Finally, there are sites that promise to protect your privacy (promise NOT to sell your information) and there are those who will sell your name and address to other sites and/or telemarketers. That's not so much about your credit card, but about general privacy. See if they have a privacy policy posted on the site.

In general, it is much safer than commonly thought to use credit card online, because EVEN IF SOMEBODY GETS HOLD OF YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER and charges something to it (the probability of which is pretty low) , you won't be responsible for charges that you haven't made. It's a hassle to call the issuer and dispute it, but at least you're not held responsible for .

[ But don't get any funny ideas about charging something and saying you didn't do it - if they investigate and confirm you received a product or service, they may press fraud charges. ]

Frankly, people who don't think twice about using their card in a restaurant should be more concerned about that since receipts (that have number, expiration dates - everything) can be stolen or even sold by unscrupulous waiters.

In short, on the Internet, know the site you are dealing with and you shouldn't have problems.

P.S. Again, this all is my opinion. Take it only as such. I am not giving you professional advice here.