The Application Of Pre-paid Cash Card For Consumers

Electronic cash cards are often confused with credit cards and debit cards.

Credit cards are the least like prepaid cash cards because with a credit card the fund are essentially borrowed from the lender, and then you pay the funds back. If the balance of the credit card is not paid back in full by the next statement, the remaining balance is charged interest. Basically, with a credit card you borrow the money and then pay it back later.

Debit cards and prepaid cash cards are similar because they both use your existing money, rather than borrowing. Both debit cards and prepaid cash cards draw funds from your bank account, usually a checking account. The difference is that debit cards can be used without a personal identification number to make purchases where the card is not present.

Therefore, online merchants do not need your personal identification number and why you may come across a terminal or point of sale merchant that allows you to use your debit card with a simple swipe and no personal identification number entry. Since prepaid cash cards always need a personal identification number to be keyed in for the transaction to be authorized, unless you tell someone your personal identification number, no one else can ever use your card.

This means that if someone steals your card information or your physical prepaid cash cards, you do not need to worry about them using your money. This is why prepaid cash cards are considered as the most secure and safe financial transaction cards. The downside of prepaid cash cards is that you cannot use them to buy something online. You also cannot use prepaid cash cards in "quick pay" terminals that have a card reader but no keypad to enter a personal identification number.

The great thing about prepaid cash cards is: they are a portable access point to your checking account. Automated teller machines are everywhere now, and you can use prepaid cash cards at automated teller machines to withdraw funds from your checking account in cash, deposit funds into your checking account, and even make an account balance inquiry. You don't have to go to the bank anymore to get money out of your checking account and don't need to have a personal computer to check your balance.

In addition, you can use your prepaid cash cards to see how much money you left in your account, and get that money out as cash. This helps to keep you from overspending and overdrawing your account. While automated teller machines usually charge your account a convenience fee, this fee is much smaller than the fee your bank charge on you if you spend more than what you have in your account.

Example 1 :
Example 2 :

Example 3 :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CashCard

http://www.superpaycard.com/

http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/prepaid/index.html

~~PHISHING : Examples And Its Prevention Methods~~

Nowadays, people use online service to done several activities. These activities including online investments, online transactions, online e-commerce, browse for information and a lot more. Even though online services brings a lot convenient to internet user, yet there are still several threats that we user should caution when using these service.

Phishing is the illegal deceptive process of trying to get confidential or private information such as the user name, password, and financial details by commonly masquerading as established institutions or even trustworthy websites.

Provides here are some examples of Phishing..

Example 1 :

Example 2 :

Example 3 :

Example 4 :

~~Ways to prevent Phishing~~

1. Do Not trust e-mails urgently requesting personal financial information.

Phishers want you to react immediately and therefore include upsetting or exciting statements which trigger fear or happiness. They may falsely claim suspicious withdrawals from your banking account, present you as the winner of a lottery or play on your passion for example politics / religion. Never give any account information on the web, no bank or any internet comerce will EVER need to ask you for your account information.

2. NEVER fill out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information.

Typically phishing scams or hoaxes ask for information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and social security numbers through an online form.Frankly speaking, the banking companies have better control over their customers and would never ask for account information. A request for these types of info should ring the alarm bell.

3. Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser.

By checking the beginning of the Web address in your browsers address bar showing "https://" rather than just “http://” would ensure that you are using an encrypted secure website. A small chain will also show in your browser when you are using a secure website.

4. Be suspicious of impersonal emails.

Phishing attacks are directed towards millions of people through email spam. The emails sent out during a phish are therefore impersonal and general, contrary to emails from your bank which are usually personal in nature.

linked :

http://www.wachovia.com/misc/1,,1856,00.html

http://www.wesbanco.com/website/PhishingExamples.asp

~How to safeguard our personal and financial date?~

Nowadays, computer is common to everyone; we rely on computer to save our personal data and use computer to save our important documentary. In additions, due to lack of times, most of us will only use online financial service to do financial transactions such as e-banking, buying goods and etc. We have to be caution to safeguard our information and financial data from getting threat, unauthorized access, destruction, unauthorized disclosure or other compromise of information. There are some important ways I suggest for you all to safeguard our personal and financial data during using computer to make transactions:


1. Avoid using public computer to do financial transaction
Prevent from logging on to check your bank balance and do any financial transaction when access internet in a coffee shop that offers Wi-Fi. Although the systems are convenient but we do not know how powerful their firewalls are.

2. Do not allow unknown people use our computer
For our own convenience, we usually will safe most of important file or documentary in our computer. Therefore, we should ovoid from borrow others people from using our computer when we are not around. We may not know they will log in to search for our file or will search for what website.

3. Password protect
Password is the most important things to keep our data. The more high quality password is better. Try to avoid using our own identity number or any number that easily be guess as our password. This will prevent from hacker hack to our computer and stole our data.

4. Install and always update your antivirus
Install a good antivirus software such as Symantec and Norton antivirus, Kaspersky, or Avast antivirus to protect our computer from viruses, worm and Trojan that may destroy and steal the data in our computer. In addition, we have to update the antivirus from time to time due to new may virus occurs.

5. Regularly scan computer for spyware
We always search for information by using internet, using pen drive to copy data from others computer and safe in our own computer. Therefore, we may get virus from others computer or from the internet we search for information. As a result we have to regularly scan for our computer and remove any of the infected files that hidden in software programs which may affect the performance of our computer.

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Nowadays, online is part of the jobs for everyone that needs to do in everyday. Their online activities include online selling, online buying, online searching and others. During online selling and buying, the customers need to submit their private information such as home mailing addresses, home phone numbers, credit card numbers, credit reports, and date of birth, social security numbers, and drivers’ license numbers, medical and insurance records to continue the purchasing process. Security issues include viruses, vulnerabilities, SQL injection and so on.

Threats of online security
1. Virus- is a program that "infects" a computer so that it does something that the owner does not control, usually to propagate itself, and do some sort of damage. Computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user.

2. Vulnerabilities- are bugs in server based programs that allow attackers to take over a machine. There is much vulnerability in many software packages, and these are sometimes caused maliciouly, and, more often than not, caused by inexperienced programmers who do not know about things like buffer overflow problems.

3. SQL Injection- is one the most pervasive security vulnerabilities on the web today. It basically takes advantage of poorly constructed stored procedures. This method allows the attacker to create, read, update, or delete any arbitrary data accessible. The most serious scenario is when the attacker can completely compromise the database system and associated services. Many people are totally unaware that even big businesses are selling client's personal information to a variety of third parties and sometimes this information can turn up in the wrong hands.

How safe is our data?
Online activities are not face to face activities but why many people still believe and trust to the online security? There are some approaches can make sure the customers’ data are safety and avoid stolen or copy by others people. How safe is our data? One of the best ways to preserve the security of the Internet is greatly increasing our PC’s protections especially the online security. The best place to protect our servers, and even our workstations, and personal computers is to keep our software up to date. BusinessWeek.com consulted the experts, who offered the following advice for the PC users:
- Don’t show any available or sensitive personal information on our MySpace or Facebook profile or within messages to other members of the network. And don't click on any links in social network messages from people we don't know.
- Furthermore, try to remember that there will not have reputable company ask for our password, account number, or other log-in information via e-mail or instant message. Therefore, don’t respond to the mailing are asking for our private information.
- Use one of the many antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs on the market. Normally, vendors offer all three functions in a single package. And many Internet service providers offer them free with our monthly subscription.
- Upgrade our browser to the most current version. From Microsoft, that's Internet Explorer 7. Mozilla's Firefox is on version 2, as is Apple's Safari browser.
- Pay attention to the messages from Windows that pop up on our screen, especially in the new Vista operating system. This is because they alway contain helpful security information that many users overlook.
- Turn on Windows' automatic-update function to get Microsoft's regular security patches.
Therefore, how safe is our data? I consider that how safe is our data is based on how the data protected by ourselves. For example, if our online security is good but we show our sensitive and available information to others, it can lead the attacker easily access to our PC. Otherwise, if our online security is poor also lead the attacker to access our PC easily.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

Third party certification programme is performed in order to verify and authenticate the web site. The third party who issue the digital certificate to verify and authenticate the website is called certificate authorities(CA). Certification Authority is a trusted third party in a public key security system which is responsible for providing the identity of users and issuing them with certificates that attach the public key to their key to their identities

Need of 3 rd party certification :
Third Party Verification adds an important element of proof to electronic transactions. For example, in a just-completed experimental study of consumer reactions to electronic contracts, over 80% of respondents agreed that a transaction was harder to dispute because the verification was made and held by an independent third party.
At present time TPV elements are used in complex verification and approve of different web transactions in conjunction with Address Verification System, IP Geolocation, phone type identifying (land line, mobile, VoIP etc). According to Paul Heyward, head of IT (Proveout.com): "Online fraud is a common headache for vast majority of companies accepting credit/debit cards payments. Such services can significantly ease Merchant's and Webmaster's everyday work and essentially minimize fraud's possibility".

Besides that, those party are needed because they provide e-mail protection and validation, secure online shopping carts, and more services in order to avoid being spammed, hacked and attack by the malicious software.

The company that provided third party certification program in Malaysia, the most famous one is the MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd. MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) operating out of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997(DSA), a Malaysia law that sets a global precedent for the mandate of a CA. More information about MSC Trustgate pleace assess to http://www.msctrustgate.com/.

Second is the MyKad PKI.Malaysian government has provided this smart National Identity Card (“MyKad”) for every citizen. MyKad with PKI capability allows its holder to conduct online transaction with government agencies and private sectors.This PKI is also primarily develop by MSC Trustgate. MyKad now allowed Malaysia citizen to authenticate themselves online and to digitally sign documents or transactions with MyKey (The MyKad PKI solution that works with the physically MyKad) and is accepted by the Malaysian government.

History of Ecommerce

History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of “sell and buy”, electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites.

The term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically.

Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public in 1994, it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols (for example, HTTP) and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet.

In 2000 a great number of business companies represented their services in the World Wide Web. At this time the meaning of the word ecommerce was changed. People began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services.Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to unfortunate results and many of ecommerce companies disappeared, the “brick and mortar” retailers recognized the advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites (e.g., after the online grocery store Webvan came to ruin, two supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, began to use ecommerce to enable their customers to buy groceries online). By the end of 2001, the largest form of ecommerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around $700 billion in transactions.

Ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, ecommerce sales accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales.Ecommerce has a great deal of advantages over “brick and mortar” stores and mail order catalogs. Consumers can easily search through a large database of products and services. They can see actual prices, build an order over several days and email it as a “wish list” hoping that someone will pay for their selected goods. Customers can compare prices with a click of the mouse and buy the selected product at best prices

Online vendors, in their turn, also get distinct advantages. The web and its search engines provide a way to be found by customers without expensive advertising campaign. Even small online shops can reach global markets. Web technology also allows to track customer preferences and to deliver individually-tailored marketing.

Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Thanks to their founders we now have a handsome ecommerce sector and enjoy the buying and selling advantages of the Internet. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. According to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics.

History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick, laying a secure foundation for the future generations.

An Example of an E-Commerce and its causes

One of the examples of an E-commerce success is eBay. eBay allows people who have a same hobby to be able to come to same site and look at what's for sale and bid on and buy on these items.

eBay uses auction process as a method for establishing how merchandise is valued and eventually exchanged between buyer and seller. Pierre Omidyar – the founder of eBay realised the needs of fast respond and delivery in the market. Therefore he has come out with an idea to run an E-commerce business. Besides, his fiancée but now is his wife realised another limitation in the real business world. Which are, some business activities are limited by geographical considerations. It is too far away and need time which by several week or even several months just in order to get the product that they wanted.

The opportunities to come together in one internet site and be able to buy and trade a wide range of items have made eBay a success. These trading items including fine collectibles. eBay allows people to often times connect with some very fond and special early childhood memories. Moreover, eBay would be the best place for people who enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar can look around for merchandise and hunt out!

eBay is a very practical place to buy and sell collective or commodities. People would feel very comfortable looking around and at the same time can get a good price. Besides, bargaining for a most reasonable price happened between seller and buyer in order to get merchandise that they wanted.

People with traditional business found that eBay was very enticing. It is so much fun and in many ways profitable that they created a brand new business in eBay. They've left behind their profession or careers and started a new business on eBay. These are some of the reason why eBay is a success E-commerce.