credit card : Java Glossary

Mag stripe cards have as much security as a pile of signed blank cheques. The new RFI (Request For Information) credit cards have even less. Somebody should sue the credit card companies for this gross negligence. If you give your credit card over the phone or over the Internet to a merchant, he, his crooked employees or anyone snooping electronically, can use that number to makes as many purchases as he wants over the net. He has your number and your expiry date. If you hand your card to a merchant, he can easily record the information on the card for later illicit use. If you have a RFI credit card, a thief can steal the information on all the cards is your wallet simply by walking within 3.05 metres (10 ft) of you in a shopping mall. Your card willingly divulges this information, without your permission, on being given a tiny prod of radio waves from a $10.00 CAD device. The technology for secure commerce has been known for half a century. The credit card companies refuse to use it, presumably because they can usually stick their customers (vendors and purchasers) with most of the costs of the thefts.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)

Credit cards are obsolete. They are absolutely preposterous when it comes to security. Giving someone your credit card number is even more foolhardy that giving them a blank cheque. Why?

1. They can withdraw any amount they please on your credit card account, just like a blank cheque.
2. they can withdraw even more money than you have, up to your credit limit, more than they can with a blank cheque.
3. They don’t need to show any id to collect the money. At least with a blank cheque, they must show id to cash it. They can go shopping anonymously on the Internet or by phone with nothing more than your credit card number.
4. They can withdraw money again and again in the future. A blank cheque can be cashed only once.
5. The card number can be used as stage one of an identity theft. A blank cheque is not a form of identification.

• For brick and mortar shopping, use a debit card. It is protected by a secret PIN (Personal Identification Number) and the worst than can happen is your account can be cleaned out.
• PayPal. You have to trust PayPal to take money out of your account, but you don’t have to trust merchants. You decide the amount. They can’t change the amount or repeat the transaction.
• Smart cards. These are popular in Europe. The card has a tiny computer embedded in it that handles security.
• Snail mailed cheques, though even your bank account number is enough for a corporation to drain your account.
• One-shot credit card numbers. Amex will give you a credit card number good for only one transaction. This is a hassle to arrange.

Debit Cards

Smart Cards

In Canada, smart cards are being phased in over the next two years. There will also have signatures and a mag stripe for use at merchants without the new readers. The cards will not become secure until the, number, the stripe or the signature are no longer valid anywhere. This likely won’t happen for many years to come. Banks could issue smart cards without stripes, numbers and signatures that are fully secure, but I have heard no plans to do this. You would not be able to use these for Internet purchases, until someone worked out a smart card reader for desktop computers.