I would say yeah, yeah it usually is but apparently it’s not. According to an advisor at my local bank branch, she said never to buy stuff online, it is never safe, the risks are too great. IT IS NEVER SAFE! NEVER! And then she pretended to hit me round the head, true story.
Is online shopping safe sounds like a bit of a silly question to me, I always shop on legit sites and through PayPal. But now I just wonder how someone got my card details, I thought I was safe…anyway, what’s your opinion?
I have a bit of a hard time taking advice that includes this:
seriously. I think all you can do with regard to online shopping is try to make it as safe as you can. I have one credit card that I use online, and it has a relatively low limit ($1000) to minimize any potential damage. I check my statement when it comes in each month. I wouldn’t say it’s never safe, because people do it all the time without a problem.
I told the advisor that. She was too falsely chirpy to listen to my words. Also I mentioned that ATM’s can sometimes be unsafe as can paying my chip and pin in stores.
I suppose I just found it a weird attitude towards online shopping and was worried I was missing something and was doing something wrong all along. God, I’m weak
It is ridiculous to claim that buying online is never safe, just as it is ridiculous to claim that it is always safe.
It’s all about calculating and mitigating your risk. Using only reputable sites, and Pay Pal, are good strategies to lower your risk. IMHO using these strategies makes the risk close to zero.
Crooks are in the business of trying to figure out how to circumvent security. It appears they have discovered one way and you were a victim. That doesn’t = online buying is never safe.
How many times have you made an online purchase with no issue? 100 times? 1,000 times? For me it probably closer to 5,000 times. Try to remember all the times it worked, vs the one time it didn’t.
Having a low credit limit doesn’t do anything to mitigate risk. You are only liable for the first $50 of fraudulent purchases. This will be true regardless of your card’s limit and regardless of the magnitude of the fraudulent charges (above $50).
PayPal is not bound by the same restrictions/requirements as credit card issuers; they are less likely to line up on the customer’s side when there is a disputed transaction, and if they do, it takes longer to do so. The $50 liability limit on fraudulent CC purchases does not apply to PayPal; if someone hacks your PP account and spends a few grand, you may find yourself on the hook for it.
I have an account with them, but I don’t use it to buy things unless there’s no alternative. I run a (very) small business that receives payments to that account from customers via PayPal, but I withdraw money often to keep the account balance low; if PP freezes my account for any reason (see Wikipedia link above), I don’t want a lot of money trapped there.
Dilbert’s take.. It is true. We’ve never had a problem on-line, but my wife’s card was copied once when she checked into a motel and used for all sorts of crap.
I do most of my Christmas shopping online – it’s convenient and easy.
You just need to take precautions. I am very careful about websites and make sure they use secure encryption (not that that’s 100% effective, but it’s a start*). More importantly, I put all my online purchases on one particular credit card I don’t use for anything else. If there’s unusual activity (it’s happened once or twice, for small amounts), I can spot it and get the charges taken off. More importantly, if my credit card is hacked, I only have to worry about one card – I can cancel it and stop any abuses.
Also, I make sure I use secure passwords and don’t use the same password for more than one secure site. I also use different passwords for secure sites than I do for things like e-mail. If someone hacks my e-mail password, it’s not going to work for Paypal.
*Most hackers, though, go for the website and forget trying to find a CC number by snooping traffic.
Yeah. It’s probably less safe to use a card in person actually. Way, way easier to get card details that way than trying to hack into an encrypted database.
I deliberately said yes and no because as other have now said, quoting Icarus, “It’s all about calculating and mitigating your risk.” I do regular online shopping and take precautions. In person, I also never give my credit card to anyone unless the transaction is completed in my direct presence. I never hand my card to a server after a meal and have them tally the bill and return with it and my card.
Yes and no. The $50 limit only applies to credit card use. It does not apply to debit cards, nor Paypal or other types of online transactions. The $50 limit is not part of your cardholder agreement; it is much bigger as in federal law.
Only use PayPal when it is funded through a credit card. That way you can not only dispute with PayPal but with the CC company itself.
I lost my wallet and in less than 30 minutes someone charged over $2,000 worth of stuff. Citibank took it right off. I did have to file a police report and send them a notorized statement saying my wallet was lost and did not make those charges.
One of the easiest ways for people to get numbers is low paid clerks. I worked in accounting in hotels and I have caught people harvesting numbers. Also with job applications and social security cards. NEVER put your SS# on an application, until you get called back. Then if they want to do a check fine. But if you’re SS# is gonna sit in a file of unread resumes and applications a $9/hr H/R clerk can just copy it.
These low paid clerks will simply copy hundreds of numbers and SS# and sell them. They don’t use them themselves. This places another level between the user of the stolen number and the person stealing it. The more levels you have the harder it is to trace any theft.
What difference does it make whether you often buy using your PayPal account or not? They already have your information. The only thing I can see that preventing is capturing your information as it crosses the ether, whereas you’re more in danger from their accounts getting hacked.
That’s actually what makes PayPal safer–you aren’t giving out your information multiple times. While it’s true that most people don’t bother with packet sniffing, there is phishing and just outright fraud. PayPal itself, after a few hickups a while ago, is pretty trustworthy.
And, as Markxxx points out, the idea that the credit card standards don’t apply to PayPal is only if you keep money in an account there. When you pay using the credit card, you can still dispute the transaction.
What I don’t know is what happens to eBay sellers or other people who are paid via PayPal. I don’t know how easy it is to get the money back out, but I’d do it as quickly as possible. As long as you don’t hold a balance, it’s about as safe as using a credit card–because you are using one.
BTW, I do not understand why credit cards get so much better protection than bank accounts. It seems the latter would be a more immediate problem.
Discover offers a way to generate a secure number for each site you visit. That number is attached to that site and even if the site were hacked, it could not be reused elsewhere. That same number can be canceled at any time, even after one use.