Is it Safe?
The short answer is yes, but that comes with a caveat.
As with everything else we have spoken about in our articles, shopping on-line with your credit card is only as safe as the security precautions that you take on your personal computer.
When you use a credit card at a restaurant you normally hand it to your server and they walk away with it and you rarely see what they do with it. Did they only swipe the card once through the appropriate terminal or did they also swipe it through their own card reader and save it for later use?
Today's card readers are no bigger than a pager and can hold information from thousands of credit cards. The majority of credit/debit card compromises have been as the result of someone skimming cards at retail sites.
When online you at least know that your card is still safely in your own hands but there are a few simple rules of which you should be aware;
- make sure the site you are browsing is a legitimate site and one of the ways to do this is to enter the site address yourself. Do not go there by a link from another site or e-mail unless you trust the source.
- make sure you are putting your credit/debit card information into a secure portal, it should say "https" in the web address and have the icon of a closed padlock at the bottom of the window.
Another suggestion we have is to get a credit card with a low limit on it just for on-line purchases, that way if it is compromised the losses will be minimized. Or ask your bank for a one-shot purchase number to complete a particular transaction.
Our final suggestion is that you follow the guidlelines on our other page on Computer Safety, especially the items on Anti-Virus Software, Pop-up Killers and Spyware Removal Tools.
A partnership with the Vancouver Police Department