Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Is buying baseball cards online safe?

We have all heard reports that buying online can be a risk because someone could get your credit card number. It is true that this has happened upon occasion, but the occurrence of it is relatively rare. The Dean's Cards Server is completely secure. We have never had a problem and we process thousands of orders each year. It is impossible for someone to get your credit information from our server because it is encrypted and not stored on the server. Even we can not access the information!

In truth most of the victims had their credit card numbers stolen because they freely and willing gave out the information by either e-mail or on the phone. This is how the scam usually works. The bad guys send out thousands of e-mails threatening to shut down a certain account (usually a bank or paypal) unless you provide confidential information.

The e-mails look official and have official e-mail addresses. The person responds with either credit card or bank info and the scam is on. The person then finds himself or herself with a dozens of bogus charges on his or her credit card.

There is really no reason for the bad guys to go through the difficult task of braking into a secure server. They simply do not need to go to that trouble when unsuspecting victims are willing to e-mail them the information. Please save yourself some grief and never answer these e-mails. In case you still have doubts about online shopping, please consider this fact: Unauthorized online charges to your card are usually insured by the bank that issued the card. If someone charges on your credit card without your authorization, you will not have to pay the bill . If this is not the case with your credit card issuer (which is very rare), then you should probably switch cards.

If someone charges on your card, you will then be issued a new credit card and the charges will be forgiven. It is that simple.

Please do not let these fears keep you from buying cards in the fastest, easiest and most efficient way. There is nothing to be afraid of, but if you are still uneasy then just pay by Money Order or Cashier's Check.

I truly believe that most of these credit card theft horror stories are started by the mall retail stores and broadcast by the TV news. Both of these organizations are losing millions of customers a year as people are buying (and getting their news) online. I have found many of these reports to be biased at best and down right false at worst. If we can be of assistance, please contact us by e-mail or call us at 513-898-0651.

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