Is It Safe To Use My Credit Card Online?

This is the question many people ask. Due to intense media coverage many feel the answer is no. But they should consider the following excerpt from an Internet World article titled Isn't It Unsafe To Send My Credit Card Number Over The Net.

I always get a kick out of people who are wary of typing their credit card number in an e-mail message. Many of these people wouldn't think twice about giving their card number over the telephone to buy flowers or to order something from a mail-order catalog. And they certainly wouldn't worry about paying a restaurant check with their card. But the chances of someone stealing your credit card number are as great -- if not greater -- in either of those situations than when you send it in an electronic message.

Think about it: When you give your number over the phone to an operator at L. L. Bean, for instance, you don't know who you’re talking to. You trust whoever it is not to buy themselves a new wardrobe with your MasterCard. You also can't be sure that someone else isn't listening in. How many times have you heard other conversations while on the telephone, thanks to "crossed wires"? How do you know that isn't happening to you when you’re talking to Tracy at Time-Life? And the problem is compounded if you use a cordless or cellular phone, which anyone with a police scanner might be able to tap into.

This material originally appeared in Internet World
Volume 6, Number 10, October, 1995; pp. 18.
Copyright 1995 Mecklermedia Corporation, 20 Ketchum Street, Westport, CT 06880;
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.