Online Payments

[smash81]

Hello,
I would like to purhase something online using my credit card.However, i am kinda scared to give my credit card number as i dont know how genuine/trustworthy the site is.
I wanted to know if there is a way to verify the reliability of the website so that i could give them the credit card number without the fear of any fraud in future.
Please let me know how i can do this

Cheers

 

[SpiritOfLennon]

If the URL starts with https on the transaction pages rather than http then that is an indication they are using a secure socket layer, I believe. This means a reasonable level of security. SOL
Yeah people they won't understand,
Girlfriends they don't understand,
In spaceships they don't even understand,
and me I aint ever gonna understand

 

[foxdev]

SOL's advice helps you determine if the site is using appropriate security techniques to prevent others from getting your CC info, but it doesn't address the issue: is this company legit?

Here are some clues to consider:
[ul]
[li]Do they list a physical address on their site?[/li]
[li]Do they list a toll-free number on their site, and does that number actually connect you to someone? [/li]
[li]If selling a product, do they post their return policies?[/li]
[li]Do they post their privacy policies?[/li][/ul]

The above can't guarantee anything. In the U.S., your liability is limited to $50 max for fraudulent charges, and by contesting a fraudulent charge with your CC company you may well get out of even that, if it shows you acted responsibly. -----------------
Robert Bradley
use coupon code "TEKTIPS" for 15% off at:

http://www.lowcostprints.com

http://www.foxdev.com

 

[JHoarty]

For my two cents, we've so far addressed the security of the channel by which your cc info is transmited (the server's ability to encrypt your data using SSL), and the legitimacy of the business entity itself. Now we have to ask ourselves, "where is this company's server and who's in charge of it?" Most company's still use an ISP somewhere and have no idea who's poking around that server, or who has access to it and who can access the directory on which your credit card info will now be stored indefinitely. And even if they host in-house, I'd have to ask the same questions. Who has access? What protections are in place? Once you are on a server somewhere, you are likely on a series of backup tapes as well. Of course, this is the case if you call up a catalog number and place an order over the phone, too! They enter your info into a computer just the same. How secure is that? Just food for thought. My main point, I guess, is that the Internet adds an almost negligable additional risk to what we've been putting up with for years and years now. Credit card theft via Internet is almost unheard of. Rarely, someone steals the whole database, but couldn't that be even more easily done on the back end? I mean right off the server? John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com

http://www.quickestore.com

 

[foxdev]

the Internet adds an almost negligable additional risk to what we've been putting up with for years and years now

Good point, John. In many ways, CC orders made over the Internet are safer, I believe. On a typical Web order, the credit card information is taken over a secure connection, and is validated and approved entirely without a human seeing it, and the order is probably filled and shipped without a human seeing it, either. In other words, hardly anyone need see the number.

But if you order by phone, anyone listening in can get the number, plus the phone operator, and (if they use paper to record the order) a lot of other people coming into contact with that info. -----------------
Robert Bradley
use coupon code "TEKTIPS" for 15% off at:

http://www.lowcostprints.com

http://www.foxdev.com