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Purchasing products via internet is just like your daily purchase at your local stores. You should check your credit card monthly statement to make sure there is no erroneous charge or unauthorized charge. This precautionary measures should be performed even you have never purchased anything via mail order, phone order, or internet. Purchasing products by e-mail or online transaction via internet is just like handing your credit card to the waiter/waitress of a restaurant or a salesperson of a department store. The waiter/waitress or salesperson processes your card and keep the transaction slip for business file. If he/she wants to use any credit card numbers that kept in the file for his/her own purchase, he/she could easily do it. However, fortunately, the vendors credit card processing units or personnel usually have the ability to detect that the shipping address is different from the cardholders billing address. Then, the vendors have the choice to either refuse the shipment or verify with the credit card owner that the different recipient and shipping address is indeed his/her designated receiving point. What if the vendor failed to protect the credit card legal holder and shipped the products to the illegal purchaser? You can find it out when you check your credit card monthly statement and request for correction and refund. The best way to protect yourself is by checking your credit card monthly statement to find out if there is any unauthorized charge. If anyone of those people who obtain your credit card number illegally purchased products without your authorization, what should you do? You should report the unauthorized charge to the bank that issued your credit card. The bank will refund the illegal charge to your account unless the vendor can prove that you indeed purchased the products. Please remember that the credit card company or the bank are on your side. They will do their best to protect your rights. The burdens are on the vendor to prove that you ordered the products and the vendor delivered the products. That is why checking and reconciling your credit card monthly statement is the best way to protect yourself against any illegal or unauthorized usage of your credit card number. Some customers worry that their credit card number and other personal data will be intercepted by unknown third party on internet when they submitted the card number to the vendor by e-mail or via the online transaction system of an "insecure site" because their credit card numbers are not encrypted. As a matter of fact, please be aware that your credit card number has been "known" to many people advertently or inadvertently from the day you were approved to use the credit card. These people including the employee of the bank issuing the credit card, the waiter of the restaurant serving you, the employee of the department store handling your purchase, etc. You could easily realize that at least a few tens of stores have the white copy of your transaction slips (You keep the yellow copy) in their file. There are a lot of people out there already know your personal information including your credit card number even before you try the E-commerce.
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