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Hi:
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$47 BILLION versus $77 million. That says it all huh? No more need for a balaclava, gun and adrenalin - just a phone line, computer and audacity. Welcome to "technology" folks.
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Indeed!
Once in a while, I hear people say they are afraid to shop online because they are afraid of internet fraud. It makes me shake my head.
There is a LOT of internet fraud. But it does NOT happen when making a purchase. Purchasing (generally) happens on a secured server and the odds of anyone being able to grab encrypted information in the nano second that it takes for the transaction to occur is so slim it makes Twiggy look fat.
Internet fraud starts;
a) When people grab personal identification OFFLINE and sell it... the number of credit cards that are nabbed at restaurants, stores, etc - and then sold - is staggering.
b) When people hand it out freely. Phishing scams, for example, and freely entering personal data without checking where one is submitting it.
The stolen numbers are USED online, yes... but they aren't nabbed when you're shopping online. There's much easier ways to grab identity data than trying to crack 128 bit encryption.
: )
Linda
P.S. Incidentally, I saw someone selling an ebook on an UNsecured form the other day. How dumb is that?? The only thing dumber is people not looking to see if a site is secured before buying. Encryption works... but you have to actually USE it. *sigh*
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