Identity Theft and Online Payments
Monday, December 8th, 2008Now that we are gearing up for the end of year celebrations, I suspect millions of consumers will use their credit card or bank accounts to shop online and buy gifts for relatives and friends. This is the time of year as well when identity theft and fraud are at their peaks. Consumers open more accounts with online merchants, and they may also open accounts with PayPal, BillMeLater and so on.
In the process of doing so, consumers disclose private information to all these intermediaries, including credit card number, bank account number, date of birth, last 4 digits of Social Security Number, etc. We consumers hope that the systems where all this information is stored is secure and protected against malicious attacks, both internal or external.
Well, unfortunately that is not the case. In November 2007 more than 250,000 computers were compromised in the Los Angeles area ( see