How to Keep Your Credit Card Numbers and Other Private Information Safe When Shopping Online

credit cards

Submitting credit card numbers and other sensitive information online shouldn't be cause for cold sweats and sleepless nights. Despite the efforts of identity thieves and other Internet criminals, shopping online is still safe, as long as you stay informed about the tools and tricks Internet crooks use to scam the unaware.

Shopping online using credit cards has become so mainstream that it's hard to remember a time when Internet shopping didn't exist. Shopping online makes perfect sense: it's efficient and convenient, and it makes comparison shopping much easier. Though most online retailers utilize sophisticated systems to keep their servers safe from hackers and other Internet fraudsters, there are still a numbers of best practices consumers should heed to ensure that each and every online shopping experience is as safe as possible.

• If your credit card company offers virtual credit card account numbers, then use them. A virtual credit card number is a temporary, randomly-generated number that's attached to your credit card account. You can use virtual numbers to pay for goods or services online, instead of your real credit card account number. If you generate a virtual account number for use on a particular website, the virtual number will be valid for that website and only that website. If you want to buy 3 items at 3 unique sites, you would generate 3 unique virtual numbers.
  
  Having read the above, you might be thinking that it would be a hassle to generate a virtual number every time you arrive at the checkout page of an online retailer. But considering the peace of mind that using virtual numbers affords you, it's worth it. Credit card companies don't charge a fee for generating virtual numbers, and the process of generating a number is quick and painless.
• When shopping online, never submit your social security number, your mother's maiden name or any other secret question/secret answer-related information that credit card companies use to verify your identity. A legitimate online retailer will never ask you for your social security number, your mother's maiden name, the name of your first grade teacher or the name of your favorite pet.
• Purchase an anti-virus software package if you don't have one already, and consider installing an anti-spyware package as well. If you have anti-virus software running on your computer, get into the habit of downloading the latest virus definition files at least 3 times per week, and run a full scan of all your hard drives at least once every week.
  
  Computer viruses, trojan horses, worms and other types of malware can cause all kinds of headaches, but when it comes to serious security threats, it doesn't get much worse than a keystroke logger (also known as a keylogger.) If your PC isn't protected by anti-virus software, you computer could get infected with a particular type of trojan horse called a malicious keylogger, a program that will record all your keystrokes, save them to a file and send the information to a criminal. If you get infected with a malicious keylogger, a huge chunk of your sensitive information, like credit card numbers, your social security number, the usernames and passwords you use around the Internet, etc. could end up in the hands of the crook who orchestrated the attack. Your private information could then be used to steal you identity, or worse.
•  Never initiate any online shopping by responding to a spam email message. Bottom line: legitimate online retailers don't send out unsolicited mail. Besides, if you respond to a spam email message, you are supporting the spammers, and you don't want to do that!
• If you want to purchase an item from a website, but you're not 100% confident about the site's trustworthiness, then search Yahoo!, BING and Google to see if you can find any reports of security issues, bad conduct or poor customer support.

Should you be nervous about submitting your credit card information over the Internet? No, you shouldn't. Just remember to use common sense and observe best practices before whipping out that credit card.

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Help Fight Breast Cancer with The New Pink ACE Elite Visa Prepaid Debit Card

All scams are ugly. All scammers are despicable.



Some scams and scammers, in my opinion, are are worse than others.



Take the recent news I found in the WSJ today. A couple in Great Neck, New York setup a breast cancer charity and used it to scam donors. These scammer lived very high on the ill-gotten cash they pocketed from decent folks looking to support a very worthy cause. Yuck!



Thankfully, these two miscreants are going to get what they deserve (although I think the wife should have been sentenced to at least some time behind bars.)



The Pink ACE Elite Visa® Prepaid Card



If you're thinking of getting a prepaid debit card for yourself or someone else, you may want to consider the new Pink ACE Elite card. With Pink ACE, every time you use the card, a small cut of the transaction goes to the reputable National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).



From the ACE website:

"...In 2010, ACE and NetSpend donated more than $400,000 through our partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation..."

I was worried that the above claim made by ACE might not be accurate. Why? The company, besides offering prepaid debit cards, is also a large player in the often predatory payday-loan industry.



I'm glad to report that ACE and Pink check out. You can see on the National Breast Cancer Foundation Partners Page that ACE is listed as a partner, with a direct link to the Pink Elite Prepaid Debit Card website. Yay!



Proof that the NBCF organization and the NBCF website are legit can be found here.



You can apply for the Pink Elite Prepaid Card by visiting the US Prime Rate website here.





With the unemployment rate still high, and with slim odds that the US economy will improve this year or next, I think we'll see a lot more deplorable scams and scammers, at least until the housing market stabilizes and America returns to real prosperity.



If you're feeling generous, be sure to do your homework before giving money to any charitable organization. After all, for most of us, the Internet always available for fast and easy research.



The New York State Attorney General website has a great "Tips on Charitable Giving" article here (PDF file.) You can also search for the charity you're interested in here, to make sure it's properly registered (search covers all 50 states!) Important to note:

"...Some organizations, like religious organizations, are exempt from registering with the Charities Bureau and may not appear in the Registry..."

Comments are always welcome.

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RFID and Smart Credit Cards: Making It Easy for Electronic Pickpockets

I have a love/hate relationship with RFID technology.

Every time I ease through the E-ZPass lane at a toll both, and slip passed non-E-ZPass users who have to wait in line to pay their toll in cash, I'm thankful.

Love E-ZPass. But I'm not a fan of RFID chips in my credit cards.

Smart credit cards use RFID technology. They allow cardholders to checkout faster than ever, with a simple wave of the card in front of a card reader. My main debit card offers super-fast "Blink" checkout, but I never use it (at least, I don't think I have!) When I checkout at e.g. +Walmart, I'm perfectly happy to swipe my card then sign the electronic signature pad. It's fast enough for me, and keeps me from worry too much about becoming a target of an electronic pickpocket.

How easy for it for someone to read the payment cards in your wallet? Much easier than you probably realize. Check out this YouTube clip:




So, what to do?

One solution: call your credit-card bank and ask them to replace any smart cards they've issued you with good, old fashioned dumb cards (sans RFID chips.) Unfortunately, many credit-card banks are so committed to smart cards that your request for a de-evolved card will probably be met with resistance.

In my opinion, it's worth it to try. My thesis: If enough people make the request, banks will get the message and will probably move to improve current smart card technologies, sooner rather than later.

I could use a metal wallet, but I don't like the idea of using something that bulky. I guess I could buy a bunch of thin, protective sleeves for each card, but I'm not ready to do that yet.

Maybe I should be.

Back in 2008, my debit card info was stolen and used (or sold) by a waitress at a popular seafood restaurant. She used one of those pager-sized card readers to swipe my card. I'm pretty sure she sold the info, because the fraudulent charge was for $150-worth of flowers from a retailer in Eastern Europe. Hard to prevent this type of theft, because restaurant staff always take your card away from you and out of sight when you pay. Needless to say, I've been using cash to pay for meals more often than I used to.

And because credit card info is being stolen from websites more often these days, I've gotten into the habit of using PayPal to pay for goods online. Another decent alternative is to use Google Checkout.

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Business Owners Should Be Aware of Balance Transfer Scam

If you are a business owner, you need to know about a scam that uses a hard-to-resist balance transfer offer to get a hold of your business bank account number and siphon funds from your account. Details below:

The scammer calls a business on the phone and tries to obtain the business's checking account number. Sometimes, the scammer will pose as a "New Accounts Executive" for a phony bank credit card company and offer an unbelievable interest rate and repayment terms for any balance transfer from another credit card. And, being exceptionally helpful, the scammer just wants one minute of your time to verify some basic information over the phone to complete the "pre-approved" credit application.

Of course, one of the pieces of "basic information" that's needed is the business’s checking account number.

The object of this phone scam is to obtain your business's checking account number so the scammer can start writing "demand drafts" payable against your checking account. But no one but you can write a check against your own checking account, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, demand drafts don't require a signature, and when your bank receives the draft with a "valid" checking account number on it, it must honor the draft. You only discover the scam if you closely examine your monthly bank statement.

But that's not all! To avoid getting caught, most of the phony demand drafts are written for very small amounts of money, making it less likely that anyone will notice the monthly amount being withdrawn from the account. While being "nicked" for, say, $4.23 a month may not seem like a lot of money to some, $4.23 times hundreds or even thousands of business bank accounts can provide a very lucrative and illegal income to the scammer.

What to Do: Although it may take some time, be sure that you or your bookkeeper thoroughly review and reconcile each of your company's bank statements each month. If you find any unverifiable debits that can't be reconciled, immediately call and then notify your bank in writing of the suspicious charge

The above quoted text is part of a longer MSNBC story that you can read by clicking here.

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