Card fraud on-line (Was Re: [LINK] NOIE Update)

[karl@inspired.net.au]

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Tony Barry wrote:

> At 5:10 PM +1100 30/10/2000, stewart carter wrote:
> >Another very unattractive aspect of NOIE's latest effort on 
> >credit-card based Net shopping is that it starts with the 
> >intellectually lazy assertion that public concern about on-line 
> >fraud is all the media's fault.

Well, my point of view is that the media has hyped things up in this area,
and whilst i do not deny that on-line fraud occurs, i think too many
people put too much trust in the fact that secure pipes are available and
never ask the questions like 'how secure is the server at the other end?'

my feeling is that the market will work itself out on this one - credit
card companies all have large anti-fraud departments and it's in their
interest to ensure that fraud doesn't occur. They're hardly going to say
that the net is too risky - this would give the turnover to their
competitors. One example of the market already working things out is that
amex has apparently developed a 'single use' credit card - they give you a
batch of numbers and each time a number gets used, it is then useless to
anyone who gets hold of it in transit etc unless the 'cracker' stops the
transaction going ahead. I do no believe this is available to the mass
market quite yet, my guess is that it won't be long.


> > 
> Yeah but there is also the problem of what is the point of online shopping.
> 
> My personal experience is as follows. Books and CDs are OK. I know 
> what I want. It's a matter of price.
> 
> Cloths are good for me. I take large sizes and I couldn't give a 
> stuff about brands or much about what they look like. Trying to find 
> my size in a shop is a pain in the..... Online is better. But I only 
> buy when existing things wear out.
> 
> Vegetables I get from a nice old guy called Sam who sets up with a 
> truck down the road.
> 
> I'm a three minute walk from a supermarket  and can pick up most 
> things. There is a good local butcher as well as a supermarket and I 
> buy what looks OK and on a price basis.
> 
> The big things in life I've got (like house and car) and I won't be 
> looking for a long time
> 

However, I must point out that each person is different, and that buying
fruit and veg from Sam is what you like.

I often prefer personal service - i like to be able to walk into my
favourite cafe (the blue olive - very good!) and request that they bring
me a tea that i like, or discuss the merits of the chili beef pie as
versus the chicken and lemon pie.

Grocery shopping is something i've found too expensive to do online. When
they start offering Paul's UHT milk at less than $1/litre, like they
usually do in Yass Franklins, the I will buy groceries online - time and
effort both play a part here, especially when you run your own business.

Niche markets are the one's to be most advantaged by online shopping, for
example I believe that LadaParts http://www.ladaparts.com/ in Caboolture
is the only Australian importer of parts for the russian cars - whilst
their site doesn't quite offer the shopping basket experience, i do
believe that a very large quantity of their sales are sourced via their
website.

Naturally, people in rural communities also benefit. I used to live about
100Kms from Sydney, to buy virtually anything, mail order was often
necessary, particularly if one wanted to avoid exorbidant pricing.

Banks seem to have taken online, on-phone, on ATM transactions to the
extreme - if you need to ask a question these days, you need to dial six
eight or even ten digits to get to their phone service, then another six
eight or ten digits to reach a human!

I believe online shopping and e-commerce is quite necessary, in it's
place. I don't believe our society should ever entirely let go of the
personal touch.

Karl
=8)