When you have to buy at the bazaars of the internet

Sometimes you miss the release of your favorite music artists best limited release, or you’re looking for a special lens filter for your camera that isn’t made anymore or that one computer part in short supply…

And you go to site that might be being hosted by a tent at a bazaar in Marrakesh…even sites that look polished might be running out of a thief’s garage!

You say, well I could use my Mastercard or American Express, they will take care of fraud, right?

Well maybe, if it’s been under 60 days and you’ve never done business with this merchant before and the moon is in the right phase and you’ve thrown the runes in the right way.

That’s not even including them giving your number to a 3nd party that might use it anytime in the future…all of the sudden that credit card number is a little scary huh?

But you say “I want my toy!”, how do I get it? Well here’s a combination that will allow you to send money safely but still be protected and not give out personal credit card numbers.

First, set up a PayPal account, ya the same guys that allow EBay to survive.

Second, get verified, they will confirm you have a real bank account, which means your bank has verified you.

Third, Either get a securitykey from PayPal/Ebay also called a “Football”, goes on your keychain and gives you further syncing security if you log into PayPal or Ebay at your local coffeeshop, even if someone is packet sniffing you, that number is only good of 30secs. They cost $5 (best five bucks you’ll ever spend), and if charged to your PayPal account.
Or even better you could head over to Verisign, ya the same guys that put certificate locks on all the big banks, and financial institutions servers so that lock lights up in your browser to say you’re encrypted and safe. They have better securitykeys called VIPs, the credit card one is about $45 bucks and fits in your wallet. If you have a Symbian(Nokia), iPhone or some Motorola cell phones you can install an app that will do the same syncing with PayPal. Remember to register it with PalPal then Ebay in the /securitykey area.

Forth, Now that you have PayPal secured, let’s secure your transactions, there’s a PayPal plugin for Firefox and IE install it.

Now comes the cool part, even if the site doesn’t take PayPal, the plugin will generate a Virtual Mastercard number for just that transaction, the merchant can’t charge it again and even if they give the number away, it’s worthless!

If the Merchant doesn’t send you your items, you can go through PayPal’s very good Resolution Center to get your money back and best of all you don’t have to look over your credit card shoulder for the rest of you life.

And now you are safe from the more disreputable merchants of the internet!