Online Shoppers Beware

tricki1

I myself have had problems with this security scheme when purchasing an item with my maestro card. I placed an order, entered the password on the secure payment bit, and on pressing enter got a script error - not Java, VBscript error I think. was on Linux so script error not likely on my end unless was to do with Firefox.

As the system wouldn't let me continue with the order, I logged out of the website and ordered again from scratch with a new session cookie. This went through ok. (The message I received on the first order specifically stated that the order did not complete, and the security system would not let me continue with the order until I logged out)

Couple of days later when the item arrived, I looked at my bank account, and I found I had two entries for the store of identical amounts. I rang the store and sorted it out with their accounts department. I remember saying that the duplicate was probably due to the secure payment coming up with error, and the assistant saying that it had come up 4 times on their records altogether :eek:, (I did refresh the page a couple of times after the error without thinking it would cause any problems ) but only authorised the payment twice.
Got my refund for the dupe but am very wary of the system now.

The problems are technical and too sensitive to internet communication breakdowns, as these problems testify. And the fact that there is no option to opt out in a Beta test of security software that deals with our money is infuriating. As already stated, once you have encountered this system do not assume you have not ordered the item - as shown there are serious bugs, and the fact that it is an automatic transfer makes it more a security risk than a security strengthening IMHO

I do not discount the possibility that coding errors on stores website could have contributed to the errors I encountered, however the system has been rushed in to use too quickly and the lack of option to opt out is not helping the stores either, as they cannot provide an option to bypass the procedure if the customer wants it while the bugs are ironed out

yorksrabbit

It's the seemingly ENDLESS paranoia that gets me.

1. Place an order on a website.

2. REGISTER your email and password. (WHY?)

3. Progress to order.

4. Enter your credit card details and security number and start / expiry dates.

5. Be transferred to the daft MasterCard or Visa screens (incidentally, both have been operating this for at least two years and, predictably, have spent nowt on publicising it.)

6. Find the 112th character of your password and the 2nd and fourth (or wotever) of your PIN.

7. Click and wait to see if that's gone through.

8. Finally. . . go back to the website.


So for ONE transaction I need:

* ID to even use the shopping cart

* ID to initiate the purchase of the blasted product

* ID to enable me to complete the purchase of the blasted product.

Just how many passwords, PINs, names, numbers, is online retailing going to have to have from its customers?

The madness reached new heights recently with the launch of the Tesco Travel Card (you load on some money and then use the card in Europe to minimise the kind of exchange rate charges you're normally hammered with unless a Nationwide customer.)

When I came to log on to our "easy access" Tesco Travel Card online account, guess what:

1. Please enter all 16 digits of your card

2. No, you can't paste 'em in. You must do it all by hand.

3. Get one digit wrong and go back to the start.

4. Next: enter the third or seventh or wotever characters of your password.

5. Get that wrong, go back, start again.

6. Next: read the field full of funny letters and numbers that is also there at log-on to prevent bots (Gawd above, WHY?????)

7. Next: misread the funny letters and numbers because they're really just too funny.

8. Next: start all over again.

9. Next: find scissors, cut Tesco Travel Card in tiny pieces and chuck in bin.

I cancelled the Tesco Travel Card. Finally -- finally - got my money back. Rang them and told 'em they must be quite. . . insane.

But the onward march of requiring consumers to go through more and more and yet more hoops continues. Yesterday I needed to pre-pay for an extra 1Gig of bandwidth from my ISP (Newnet.)

Order; pay by my credit card; then wait. . . oh, here we go, the Mastercard verification screen now.

And all for £1.37p.

That's not Newnet's fault, they're presumably stuck with it.

But you have to shake your head in disbelief at the way the ordinary customer is nowadays under suspicion of being about to nick £1.37p when £billions have vanished into thin air because of these exact same banks -- and many £millions has walked out the door in the pockets of those banks' same directors.

No-one is arguing against sensible precautions to protect customer and supplier alike. But this is pure craziness.

(And as for all those online retailers who insist on customers registering before they can actually buy anything, well, hopefully they'll be amongst this year's corporate collapses too.

(In which case, farewell, Marks & Spencer: although the £400sworth of stuff we were going to buy online means little to a company that size, if a million other potential customers walked away in protest at this nonsense of being compelled to open an account, the sums would soon add up.)

GRRRRRRR!!!!!:mad:

[Deleted User]

yorksrabbit wrote: »

It's the seemingly ENDLESS paranoia that gets me.Just how many passwords, PINs, names, numbers, is online retailing going to have to have from its customers?

Tell me about it. Doncha just get fed up of trying to find ways of dreaming up and remembering new passwords. And don't you dare write any of them down...

Off at a bit of a tangent, but the other day I rang the bank to ask what the current interest rate was on one of their savings accounts, and they wouldn't even give me that without a password!! It's public information published in the leaflets in the local bank for *&$!! sake!

There's a perverse advantage to having a system that's not secure: if it's untenable to claim that the system is secure, then it's relatively easy to sort things out if your ID is stolen. If you doubt that, just wait and see what happens when we get National ID cards. The first person to have his card hacked into will get stonewalled by a beaurocracy that insists the system is secure, and will probably end up losing his job, house, marriage, and wind up in jail as well.