It is more secure to shop online or offline?
When you shop online using an SSL secured gateway (the website pages with the LOCK), your credit card number and address is encrypted using the most up to date technology. Shopping carts with an SSL certificates installed use 128-bit encryption. This ensures that your transactions are secure. Your order is processed by a secure server which is similarly encrypted and is programmed with fraud protection and password security to ensure the safety of your information.
The credit card information which you provide via encrypted computer communications is the same credit card information you hand over to the waiter or waitress at a cafe who walks off with your credit card. It is the same credit card information that you give verbally over the telephone to some person who hoefully wont write it down and visit ebay that night. Once that information is in the hands of person, you are depending on their honesty and integrity to insure the safety of that information.The bottom line is that though the media used to make a big deal about online credit card fraud, they have recently be changing their tune. Accirding to NETT magazine online credit card charge back rates are lower than offline rates. Web based transactions are, in most cases safer than those that take place over the phone or with a retailer.
You need to educate yourself and make sure you know where you information is going so it does not end up in the wrong hands.
According to Australian research company, www.consult, the security of credit card transactions remains the number one concern both for Internet users who have yet to make an online purchase, and for those who have performed an
online transaction.
The US National Consumer’s League Internet Fraud Watch (NCL) has reported that American consumers lost over $3.2 million to online scams in 1999, a 38 per cent increase over the previous year. Importantly, the vast majority of cases reported to the NCL involved payments by cheque or money order, with credit card transactions accounting for only three per cent of cases.
The NCL’s figures were corroborated by a recent survey by Internet research firm BizRate.com of 13,500 online consumers. The study found that, although more than 50 per cent of those surveyed expressed concern that their credit card details would be stolen during an online transaction, less than two per cent had actually experienced credit card number theft.
Hally Wolhandler, VP of Research at USbased ActivMedia Research, said:
‘Fear of placing electronic transactions has kept some would be buyers off the Web, just as fear of fraud keeps some businesses from diving in with both feet. But the reality is that Web-based transactions are, in many cases, safer than those that take place over the phone or even with bricks-and-mortar retailers.’
For more info:
National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) http://www.noie.gov.au/
The Australian Computer Society http://www.acs.org.au