Credit Card Safety Online - Comments Page 1

The best advice I ever received about being scammed on the net was to use a designated card with a low limit, i.e. £200. If you do get caught you won't lose much.

Thanks Bob. Good reminder. Very informative!

Thanks for the tips Bob. Several years ago I discovered that my credit card provider offered a new service called "virtual Credit Card." It is a small program downloaded to your computer. Every time I buy something over the web I generate a new credit card number that is valid only for that transaction. For many shopping sites the program will even input the required credit card data automatically.

I'm surprised that more banks and other issuers are not offering this or a similar service. Even if a vendor's files are compromised in some way the number I've used is dead and useless.

Anyway, thanks again for this head's up. Where there's a will there's a way...even for stealing.

PayPal isn't secure either. I signed up for it but did not use it immediately. Later that day I got an email supposedly from PalPal saying that I needed to confirm my data. I forwarded that email (without entering my data) to the PayPal site asking for verification that it was from them. That email did not come from them. I have never used PayPal and never will if someone can find out so quickly that I have signed up with them. Minnie

EDITOR'S NOTE: I know it seems like an amazing coincidence, but I'm sure there was no connection between your signing up for Paypal and that scam email you got. The Internet is flooded with those Paypal phishing scams -- I get several every day.

PayPal has scammed many people, including myself. They did *nothing* when I reported that a seller never sent the product I ordered via eBay. So I unsubscribed from them (and eBay) forever.

Another good place to discover other people's experience with an online store or service is resellerratings.com.

You might want to mention Web Of Trust.
I always look at the little icon before I ever go to a site to make a purchase.
If it's a green ring, I go to the site.
If it's yellow or red, forget it!

I'm surprised.. Your hints are the same I use when shopping on-line.
Here, in Chile, banks use double password to reduce risks of fraud...
Thanks, Bob.

I use virtual cards from Citibank. Good for one merchant and only good for the dollar limit that I set. Used at any other merchant--it gets refused. Even if somebody steals the merchant's database, they have the virtual card number and not the real card number, so they can't use it anywhere, and my real number isn't compromised.

Discover offers the "disposable" credit card for one-time purchases. It takes just seconds for them to generate a new number.

Stay away from the "fake, piece of trash credit card"===== debit cards!!

In the U.S., federal law limits a consumer's liability for credit card fraud to $0, or a maximum of $50 under very limited, extreme circumstances. The only exception is when the consumer is actually engaged in perpetrating the fraud.

This was mentioned a couple times, but a virtual credit card is an important tool in protecting yourself against fraud. I recommend finding a bank that offers this feature. i.e. Citibank and Bank of America.

I recently on-line booking a hotel

the hotel reply via email to me to confirm the reservation.

In the email, stated all my details eg name,handphone# , card number , expiry date ,

& most importantly the last 3 digit of the card number which shall not reveal .

I had to call the bank to block my card , & pay to reissue a new card , & have to notify all the merchannts for my auto-pay.

I had lodged a complaints to this careless hotel but no response.

Can i know , is there any written rule that the merchant shall not disclose this confidential of the clients?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's a violation of Visa/Mastercard rules in the USA to store the 3-digit CVV Code.

I have a Visa credit card through my credit union. My credit union uses the cucardlock program. I can lock and unlock my credit card as needed, either by telephone or computer by using a PIN number.

I think this is a great program to have and all credit card companies should use this.

Bank of America had a feature call Shop Safe. I generate a credit card number for a certain amount unually just ovet the online purchase price. Once it is used it is done.