Protect your privacy with online payment services
|
These days you can buy almost anything online, whether through a trusted online store or one of the many Internet auctions. If you purchase an item through an online store, you can get help finding one you trust by doing a little research. But if you're buying through an auction, it's a little harder to tell who's at the other end of your transaction when you hand over your credit card number. To make things a little easier and safer, many online auction sites allow you to use a third-party payment service.
What is a third-party payment service?
A third-party payment service allows you to transfer money into an online account and make payments from that account without exposing your real credit card or bank account information. The most popular of these services is called PayPal (owned by eBay), but there are others such as Amazon.com Payments, Yahoo! PayDirect, and VeriSign Inc. These third-party payment services have uses beyond auctions. You can use them to purchase products from small Web sites or to donate money to different causes. In fact, you can use some third-party payment services to send money to anyone with an e-mail account.
Choosing a payment service
If you're buying from an online auction, the choice may not be up to you. If you've already won an auction, you may be limited to the payment choices the seller or the auction site selects. For example, many eBay sellers only accept PayPal and many Amazon.com Auctions sellers will only accept Amazon.com Payments.
Tip: Before you bid on an item in an auction, check the payment provider that the seller uses. If you don't feel comfortable using that payment provider, then you probably shouldn't bid on the item.
If you are given the choice, you can choose a more secure service by following these tips:
| • | Read the privacy policy and make sure you agree with it. If you don't, go elsewhere. |
| • | Check for a stamp of approval from the BBBOnline (The Better Business Bureau Online) or Truste. |
| • | Find out what other people are saying about the service by checking comparison sites such as Epinions or Bizrate. |
Using payment services more safely
Some ways to use third-party services more safely include:
| • | Never respond to e-mail messages from third-party payment services asking you to confirm account details, such as passwords or other personally identifiable information. These e-mail messages could likely be an identity theft scam, such as phishing. |
| • | Check if the seller has been a verified member of the payment service for a few months or more. Some sites will also allow you to check the seller's rating—although these ratings cannot be guaranteed, they can be helpful. |
| • | Be more careful when you're purchasing very expensive items, such as jewelry or computers, especially around the holidays and for items that are sold out in stores. |
|