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Michael Busch, a writer for AVWeb, spent 3 years consulting for VISA International, and he says using your credit card on the Internet is safe.
But perhaps New York Times journalist Peter H. Lewis put it
best:
"Sending a credit card number to an electronic merchant over
the Internet is probably the safest way to make such a transaction.
In the last week, for example, I handed my credit card to a waiter
who disappeared with it for five minutes. I faxed my credit card
information to a business in New Jersey, and the fax probably
lay exposed to everyone in that office for hours and perhaps to
the cleaning crew that night. I called a hotel and gave my card
data to a reservation clerk and continued my recklessness by ordering
some merchandise from a clothing catalogue, again by reading my
credit card information to some unseen operator.
"Compared with the risk of handing my credit card to a stranger, which I do nearly every day, sending it over the Internet is pretty secure. (The New York Times, Nov. 13, 1995 C3)
Note that hackers who are smart enough to hack a credit card number from the net are also TOO SMART to try credit card fraud -- they know it's too easy to get caught. Criminals who know how to get away with some limited forms of credit card fraud are much more likely to bribe a waiter in a restaurant or do a dumpster dive behind a gas station. Learning to hack the net is time consuming. Ask yourself: If I wanted to steal money fast, which would give me a better payday TODAY -- hacking the net, or walking down to the local gas station? Now you know why credit card fraud on the net is so rare.
We feel that mainstream press reports claiming that "using your credit card on the Internet is dangerous" are simply wrong. Remember that mainstream journalists are not internet experts, and they are not retail merchants. They are in the business of writing news stories that will get your attention.
Even Dan Akst, the cyber-writer for the LA Times, has acknowleged that credit card purchases over the Internet are safer than buying flowers over the phone from the office.
MasterCard recently reported numbers showing that their volume of credit card transactions was up by 26%, but fraud was down by 11.4% -- you can conclude that fraud is being combated successfully.
The credit card customer has two (possibly 3) levels of protection: First, any charge on a credit card can be disputed and credited by the consumer. The banks protect the consumer!
Second, here at Rapazzini Winery, we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means that if you ask us for a credit on your credit card (and you bought something from us) then we credit your credit card.
The third level of protection, of course, is our secure server, which encodes or encrypts your number, and is available to you if you want to use it.