Internet Credit Card Processing: How Safe is Your Credit Card?

"Internet credit card processing is perfectly safe," says the e-merchant. They'd have you believe that their servers are akin to an electronic Fort Knox, and that your transaction processes are 100% private and secure. As they're whispering such assurances in your ears, bear in mind the principle that no defense is ever impregnable. Well-fortified though a server may be, there will always be someone with the knowledge and skill to crack through.

Carders, the common term for such information highwaymen, have been known to peddle their wares--stolen credit card numbers--by the thousands. Don't believe me? I wouldn't want to either. In 1999, CD Universe, an Internet based album shop, compromised nearly 300,000 credit card numbers. The hackers perpetuating this thievery proceeded to give 25,000 of these numbers away over the black market as an advertising scheme. These aren't paupers stealing away in the night with loaves of bread. They're well organized, ill intentioned criminals committing grand larceny. And they're out to get all of us.

Even when the victims of such Internet credit card processing crimes have cleared their names and fixed their credit ratings (though this happens far less often than we'd like) someone--Visa, MasterCard, or your local bank--still has to pay for these fraudulent charges. These are direct blows to your credit issuer's coffers! They lose this money and rarely see it again, and who suffers? The customers, through higher interest rates and lower spending walls.

Hacking Internet credit card processing accounts isn't rare, either, and there have been instances where the hacker didn't process mere tens of thousands of card numbers. In a series of 2003 thefts, Visa and MasterCard and a number of other main stream banks suffered a security breach wherein over 8,000,000 (eight million) personal card numbers were compromised. More recently, in June of 2005, an astonishing 40,000,000 (Forty Million) credit card numbers were stolen in one of the largest cyber-thefts ever.

So when a website assures you that Internet credit card processing is safe, are they lying? No. Nine times out of ten, they're doing their absolute best to process your information in a confidential manner. What they're saying, in essence, is "we're honest. We won't steal from you. Our Internet credit card processing is safe." You can trust them about as much as you can trust a waiter at a local restaurant. Most of them do what they need to and give you your card back with a smile. Still, every so often, a greasy skinned con man goes into the back register and makes a second copy of your card number. C'est la vie.

The bottom line is this. Credit card theft over the Internet is commonplace. But the merchants and their employees aren't the ones at fault. Blame the hackers. And then be careful whenever you are involved in Internet credit card processing.