Hello Gene, On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:53:21 -0400 GMT (16/09/2008, 07:53 +0700 GMT), Gene Brown wrote:
>> Or am I worrying about nothing? GB> Maybe I've naive, but I've never had a problem with doing this. If GB> you send your credit card number to the vendor, what happens to it GB> after that? How does the vendor secure it? I agree with you on this. The main problem is how the vendor stores the information. Even banks got hacked, or their customer details copied on CD for sale. GB> When I use a credit card in a restaurant, I give it to the waiter GB> and he disappears for several minutes. Does he have a buddy back in GB> the kitchen who collects these numbers for resale? I don't know, but GB> I don't worry about it. Neither do I. In the past, I had billings on my credit card that weren't from me: 1.) In a hotel. I asked the CC company to forward me a copy of the sales slip with my signature. Once they realised they couldn't provide it, they credited the amount to me and blacklisted the vendor. (Visa) 2.) By internet. Somebody had used my CC details to subscribe to a porn website. My number had obviously been burnt, i.e. circulated to people who practice fraud. The amount was credited back to me, and I was offered a new CC number. BTW they can actually check the IP address from which the CC payment instruction originated, so I think somebody got in trouble. (Amex) GB> Is the internet really any riskier than how I use the card every GB> day? On the other hand, I do second Jernej's suggestion to give your credit card number only over a secured website, if offered. This prevents the trouble of complaining and rejecting a charge, which is a bit of paperwork. On second thought, there still remains the question of how secure the vendor stores the information. Remember that credit card companies still have to prove that it was you who bought the goods or services. This means they cannot charge your card out of whim. If they didn't care, they would loose customers quickly. But then, laws and practices in different countries differ. Back to the original question, I don't think the average vendor will go through the procedures of a one-time encryption. If they don't have a secure website and thus aren't security-conscious, submit your CC details by phone and worry about how they store the information. I'm now off to book a rental car for my upcoming trip to Europe, using my credit card on their website... -- Cheers, Thomas. When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds. http://thomas.fernandez.hat-gar-keine-homepage.de/ Message reply created with The Bat! 4.0.28.4 under Windows XP 5.1 Build 2600 Service Pack 2 ________________________________________________ Current version is 4.0.24.0 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
