Technology… Credit Cards.

[DaveTN]

My card got compromised last week. No big deal, MasterCard contacted me to verify and then closed the account and reissued cards; I’m not out anything but a few days without the card. (I use it for everything)

But it made me wonder. My card appears to have been compromised after an On-line purchase. Once a company (or anyone their employees) has your account number and code number; they are good to go.

It seems to me in this day and age this should be a pretty easy problem to fix. Like MasterCard giving you “one time use†numbers or something for on-line purchase.

Maybe all this has already been done and I’m just not aware of it yet?

[ftncityfatboy]

My card(s) have been compromised several times after an On-line purchase. So far, like you, I'm out nothing but a few days without it. Now if my credit rating starts to dive........that's a different ballgame..

[xRUSTYx]

Like MasterCard giving you “one time use” numbers or something for on-line purchase.

Maybe all this has already been done and I’m just not aware of it yet?

Dave ... There are a few Bank Credit Cards that already do this. I remember reading about this a few months back ...

[Guest bkelm18]

I recall Navy Federal might have been doing this a couple years ago. I stopped using them awhile ago. I have a Paypal Debit Card that I use for online purchases. It isn't directly linked to my main checking account and I'm notified by email the instant there are any purchases made with it. I can nuke the card if I need to from any computer.

[Trekbike]

It seems to me in this day and age this should be a pretty easy problem to fix. Like MasterCard giving you “one time use” numbers or something for on-line purchase.

Maybe all this has already been done and I’m just not aware of it yet?

A guy at work uses Discover and they have that ability. Been thinking about getting one myself for on-line purchases.

[Jonnin]

our discover card has the 1 time use numbers, its great. Its also a feature that is going away this fall .... sigh. My advice is to apply for one with a very low limit for use online. This can be difficult (they like high limit cards), sometimes the easy thing to do is open a small checking account, put money in as you need it (online transfer from your real account is simple with online banking) then use the debit card. Someone steals it, they cannot use it, no money in the account!

[Oh Shoot]

.... Like MasterCard giving you “one time use” numbers or something for on-line purchase.

Maybe all this has already been done and I’m just not aware of it yet?

MC already has that option for online payments.

[h=1]"Virtual Account Numbers

[/h] [h=2]Protect your credit card number with a free, easy-to-use service[/h] Shop online or by mail order with confidence by creating a limited-use Virtual Account Number for your card. You can even customize your Virtual Account Number to control how much money it can be used for and for how long.

Virtual Account Numbers offer all the benefits of regular AT&T Universal card numbers-for example, you can still track purchases when using them.

The Virtual Account Number tool can be downloaded to your PC or accessed through a web browser on any computer. It's free and it's easy! So why wait? Take advantage of this convenient security feature today."

This is found through my Universal Card login access, so link won't work.

- OS

[Guest WyattEarp]

to keep your account info from being compromised online while shopping and making purchases, there's a few things you can do.

1.) if you're using a network or router at home, make sure the router is encrypted with WEP, WPA, WPA-PSk or other security features. Make the code as long and random as possible using a combo of numbers, letters, and symbols (if allowed), use uppercase and lowercase. Don't use 64-bit, use the 128-bit HEX security.

2.) if you pay bills online or shop online, when you go to that website, make sure it has https:// and not http:// before the web address this means it's encrypted and it uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and should be secure from being intercepted by another computer, it encrypts and scrambles the information, so all the person intercepting the signal gets is a bunch of gibberish that doesn't make any sense.

3.) If you have a wireless router or network at home, turn the SSID Broadcast to off. That way people don't know you have a network and cannot see your network, if they don't know it's there, they can't try to break into it. Now there are programs out there that can find networks that are not broadcasting their SSID's, but most people don't know that, and if your network or router is encrypted with a 26 character code of random numbers and characters with varying upper/lower case, then it's going to be near impossible to break into it anyhow. i recommend not using credit cards or banking info or other personal items from work, library, or school computers, or from wi-fi points around town because you don't know what type of security and encryption they have.

just a few tips to help make your online experience a little bit more secure, and a little safer.

[Guest WyattEarp]

just an FYI in case anyone's interested, if you have debit/credit cards or Health Insurance cards with RFID chips embedded in them, you might want to watch this.

Thieves are using RFID Scanners and they can walk by you, press a button and steal your information and you'll never even know it. They can get debit and credit card info, expiration dates, security codes, not sure if they get pin numbers or not, they can get health info, social security number, anything that's stored on that RFID chip.

Electronic Pickpocketing Targets Credit and Debit Cards with RFID Technology - WREG

[Guest uofmeet]

you can always go get one of those pre-paid visa cards.

[Guest 73challenger]

to keep your account info from being compromised online while shopping and making purchases, there's a few things you can do.

1.) if you're using a network or router at home, make sure the router is encrypted with WEP, WPA, WPA-PSk or other security features. Make the code as long and random as possible using a combo of numbers, letters, and symbols (if allowed), use uppercase and lowercase. Don't use 64-bit, use the 128-bit HEX security.

2.) if you pay bills online or shop online, when you go to that website, make sure it has https:// and not http:// before the web address this means it's encrypted and it uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and should be secure from being intercepted by another computer, it encrypts and scrambles the information, so all the person intercepting the signal gets is a bunch of gibberish that doesn't make any sense.

3.) If you have a wireless router or network at home, turn the SSID Broadcast to off. That way people don't know you have a network and cannot see your network, if they don't know it's there, they can't try to break into it. Now there are programs out there that can find networks that are not broadcasting their SSID's, but most people don't know that, and if your network or router is encrypted with a 26 character code of random numbers and characters with varying upper/lower case, then it's going to be near impossible to break into it anyhow. i recommend not using credit cards or banking info or other personal items from work, library, or school computers, or from wi-fi points around town because you don't know what type of security and encryption they have.

just a few tips to help make your online experience a little bit more secure, and a little safer.

These are pretty good tips. A few things though, If your wireless is encrypted with WEP encryption change it to something newer aka WPA/WPA2. Hiding your SSID is ok if you want to do that however if a person is knowledgeable enough to break into wireless, a hidden SSID is nothing. Most of the programs I have used to break encryption it doesn't make any difference if the SSID is broadcasted.

[hornett22]

I use cash. Can't go over my limit and if someone else gets whole of it, I'm dead so it doesn't matter much anymore.

[bajabuc]

I use cash. Can't go over my limit and if someone else gets whole of it, I'm dead so it doesn't matter much anymore.

Yup...best advice yet. If it's a Microsoft product it's full of holes. If it's a Mac....