Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Safe, Really, Is Paying For Things Online?
An anonymous reader writes:
Due to the rash of intrusions into electronic payment systems lately, I've decided to go back to paying cash for everyday purchases, groceries, fuel, and anything else I pay for in person (which also has the positive effect of making balacing my checkbook every month that much easier). The question I have is: For the monthly bills it's just not practical to pay in person (utilities, for instance), how safe are those?
Five minutes of research is telling me that mailing paper checks isn't any more secure than online electronic payments and in fact may be even less secure, but short of literally showing up at the electric company, phone company, ISP, and so on, and paying them cash in person, I can't see any other way to pay them. So how safe is it right now, honestly?
I'm always interested in how Slashdot readers secure their own personal finances -- but how high is the danger that a remote malefactor will hijack and then drain your bank account? Leave your best answers in the comments. How safe, really, is paying for things online?
Five minutes of research is telling me that mailing paper checks isn't any more secure than online electronic payments and in fact may be even less secure, but short of literally showing up at the electric company, phone company, ISP, and so on, and paying them cash in person, I can't see any other way to pay them. So how safe is it right now, honestly?
I'm always interested in how Slashdot readers secure their own personal finances -- but how high is the danger that a remote malefactor will hijack and then drain your bank account? Leave your best answers in the comments. How safe, really, is paying for things online?
You only need to use electronic payments, such as a credit card, not necessarily online. Many thefts used compromised readers during a regular in person transaction, though newer cards make this less likely. Ultimately your retailer will typically store your payment information in a database, along with other personally identifying information. This is even more likely with over the phone purchases. Many companies store it in plain text while few properly hash/encrypt it.
Been paying for stuff online since 1999, frequency of CC number changes is about the same pre and post... occasional bogus charge shows up, call the company, charge is reversed and we get new card numbers... no drama, minor hassle, way better than mailing checks.
I have several checking accounts, and I got tired of paying the check printing companies for... printing my checks. So I bought check stock cheap and I print my own. Apparently, the world has gone from magnetic ink to OCR, so I am home free. If I can print my own checks, so can anyone else print anything they want. I could easily print checks from any other business once I have their account number.
What reduces check fraud is enforcement. Or so I think.
A dingo ate my sig...
Limit your financial and inconvenience exposure by
(1) Closing inactive (i.e., unused 6months) accounts
(2) Initiating a freeze on new credit applications or existing credit reporting
(3) Request a Personal Identification Number (PIN) from the IRS to prevent bad guys from filing a fraudulent tax return in your name
(4) Request your bank to limit the amount of money which can be withdrawn electronically from checking and savings accounts
(5) Don't use debit cards for electronic transactions
(6) Always challenge organizations which request your SSN when establishing an account
(7) Immediately validate/reconcile your financial statements/transaction reports
(8) Use challenge questions with responses that few, if anyone, would know the answer
(9) Take advantage of online businesses which give you the opportunity to receive a separate code on your smart phone, to complete a transaction
(10) Never respond to an initial online request to provide your identifiers or authenticators
I don't know why anybody in the US even cares about credit card theft at all. Unless you're with a downright crappy bank, you aren't liable for even one cent worth of fraudulent charges. You get people who fret over buying those ultimately useless contactless credit card shields and trying to go back to checks (seriously?) for nothing.
In the EU I could see avoiding it because they have no concept of zero fraud liability and the banks are allowed to stick it up your ass. But EU is so poor that restaurants charge money for water and don't even give free refills, so this behavior is expected.
Walking around with cash is statistically more dangerous than using credit cards for everything, in the same way that the most dangerous part of a flight is the drive to the airport.
LOL "London PD"...
That's not what it's called you delusional fat fraud.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Make that WHEN someone hacks them. Which will almost certainly happen sooner or later. If it's a broad breach instead of just a few accounts, it's a safe bet that in the US neither PayPal nor your money will be anywhere to be found. In the EU where PayPal is subject to banking laws, you may have recourse. Not so in the US where PayPal operates as an unregulated bank. (Why would any sane person give an unregulated bank access to their money?)
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
You can just use your nice high-def camera on your phone to capture someone's Apple Pay screen, say while you're behind them in line and they're getting ready to pay. Free access to ApplePay account with just a picture, no hacking required.
Without that person's specific hardware device (e.g. the iPhone whose screen you photographed), you're not going to be able to use that data you just captured.
#DeleteChrome