Tell my mom her visa will not get stolen?

my mom will never buy anything off of the internet even though there are great deals. I tell her all the time how much money she can save but its all about how the neighbour's identity was stolen blah blah blah, a bunch of random garbage coming from a person who has barely touched a computer. I'm no genius myself but I don't see how u can get ur identity stolen from a big name corporation, where thousands of purchases are made everyday.

Hi Jordan.
Don't forget that you can print an advertised item from the internet and the store will match it. /

I can't tell her that because it can and has happened. I buy stuff online all the time and have never had a problem, but I understand why a lot of people are leery about it. The risk, though small, is real.

Tell your Mom that it is far more likely for her credit card information to be stolen at any retail establishment she uses it at, especially at restaurants. Store personal can carry small devices known as skimmers that they can quickly swipe the card through that will record it's info to be used later.

The credit card info can also be stolen right from her own mailbox then it is on the internet. Thieves sometimes snag credit card statements or even actual credit cards out of the mail sometimes.

In fact, using it at a reputable online seller, like Amazon.com is the most secure way to use it, because the connection is encrypted with a very strong industry standard, encryption scheme, plus store personal don't even get to see the card info.

Clark Howard, a syndicated radio consumer advocate said this "Only three percent of ID thefts result from high-tech intrusions like a computer hacker stealing info online. By comparison, more than a third of all ID thefts happen when your credit card number is skimmed by an unethical employee -- either in-person or on the phone. The truth is that there are many ways people steal your identity. In fact, e-retailers offer you more layers of protection than when you hand your credit card to someone behind a register who you've never laid eyes on before. About 20 percent of the time ID theft occurs when people steal from your mailbox. But that risk can be easily eliminated by purchasing a locked mailbox at any hardware store."

I'm sorry kiddo, but I'm with your mom on this one; kind of.

There are 2 ways that your credit card could potentially be stolen via an internet transaction. One is by someone intercepting your internet traffic. If the web site you purchase from has any brains at all (and Visa these days is really cracking down on security - don't pass their SAS70 audit and you can't process Visa transactions anymore) then that traffic will be encrypted using SSL. Now I'm sure you'll read this is protected with 128 bit encryption. The truth is, only 40 bits of that key is "secret". The rest of the key has been provided to the U.S. Government (the same government that kept the stealth bomber a secret, etc. - wonderful track record here). Something to bear in mind is with "brute force methods", this encryption can be cracked, given enough computing power and time. It may take a while, but it can be done if someone wants your credit card number badly enough.

What is far more common is someone hacks into the web site's computer. If these companies selling stuff have any brains then the actual credit card number will be whisked away to some computer inside their firewall as quickly as possible and will be inaccessible from the web server thereafter. Relatively few web sites do this. Hack into the web site and you can get the credit card numbers of everybody who has bought something there. Even if they are that bright, if you hack in, you can put in a packet sniffer to capture the credit card numbers as they are sent. These days to speed things up, the SSL encryption is typically done by an encryption co-processor (Sun Microsystems, a popular web server vendor, likes to call these MAU's), so the TCP/IP stack on the operating system sees the packets unencrypted.

So is buying things on-line totally unsafe? No. Be careful who you buy from (better off with big companies who have a handle on security and not small outfits who don't have a clue). Use a seperate credit card for on-line purchases, which you use only for on-line purchases. Print out all reciepts from on-line purchases (I like to print them with PDFCreator so it saves them as a PDF file too, so I can always reprint them later if need be), and watch the statement for that credit card carefully for signs of unauthorized purchases. Many credit cards say you are only liable for $50 if your card is lost/stolen (and you report it as soon as it comes to your attention). Some cards say you are liable for $0 for on-line purchases (because they want to encourage you to buy on-line because you're almost sure to pay with a credit card that way). So find one with zero liablity.

As others have pointed out, identify theft happens in stores too. It even happens by people dumpster driving you trash can, or taking stuff out of your mailbox (if it does not lock). We are seeing some desperate times and are likely to see a rise in theft - identity or the old fashion kind. Be careful out there.

YOUR MOTHER SORRY TO SAY IS RIGHT THERE ARE ALOT OF PEOPLE WHO CAN WORK WONDERS WITH THE COMPUTER TELL YOUR MOM TO GET PAY PAL SHE IS 100 PERCENT COVERED SO BLAH BLAH BLAH TO YOU GET YOUR OWN CREDIT CARD RESPECT YOUR MOMS WISHES

Alright tell her this:

Every single day hundreds of thousands if not millions of people buy something online. There are companies like paypal designed to protect you when you buy things online. Clearly the neighboor used an unsecure sight.

Ask her to find a single person who lost their identity after using paypal. I guarantee that she couldn't find even one person.

So overall, there will always be someone who does lose their identity. Just tell you mom that you can not let it hold you back; you must forge forward in this new world of technology

your mom can buy in the internet but its less safe than Buying in a store your mom however can buy at ebay.com or amazon.com

It pays to be cautious in today's society. The corporation itself may not participate in identity theft, but you hear stories of corporations being hacked and thousands of people's information being stolen. This recently happened with my Bank of America credit card and they immediately closed the account and issued me a new credit card. If she would like to make online purchases, Paypal is a safe and secure way to do so. There is also a credit card out there (I want to say it's a Visa brand) that will give you a credit card number solely for online purchases, so you don't give out your primary card number. I saw an advertisement for it on television once, but cannot remember more about it. Hope this helps!

If her identity were to get stolen from buying online; from a legit company; I would be amazingly surprised.
It's almost impossible too.
Companies go to great lengths to secure their customers.
It's like a million to one chance.

unless your an idiot, you won't buy off a fake site.

but if you use something like paypal, ebay, or any other big name site, you won't get it stolen.

Well actually you really got to be carefull now adays hwo technology has gotten there are alot of good hackers so becareful ..

Tell her to not go and buy stuff on junk webs. Always buy a product of it's original website and try to not by second handed things or stuff with an akward really reduced prize.
Then, It will be totaly OK!! ^^

oh but they can..everyday all day...so get yourself a paypal account and that will solve all of your problems...

Paypals the only way to be 100% safe on the internet

tell her to use paypal so it wont get stolen

IT WILL NEVER GET STOLEN IF ITS A TRUSTSED WEBSITE!! i do it all the time

take her card and buy it dont even let her know

my bf did that with everything they never noticed
just buy something like once a month

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