With consumers having very little information at their fingertips to make judgements about online merchants, it is understandable that they would be wary of using their credit cards to shop online.
Angus Brown, CEO of eBucks.com, says the online medium does not allow customers to be in the store to touch the merchandise, see the merchant or watch their credit card being processed.
Not only that, but consumers have no idea about the safety of the business with which he or she is doing business unless it is communicated to them.
Assuming that the merchant is ethical, the operation might not make use of the security technology to protect the information shared with them. They may not have a firewall authorising only certain visitors to access information; intrusion detection software to identify security breaches; or tunnelling technologies, which create secure passages for the transfer of data or public key infrastructures that validate the identity of participants.
Without one or a combination of these security measures in place, the merchant is vulnerable to intrusion from an outside source. If someone were to hack into the system, that private information, including credit card numbers, would be compromised.
Brown says eBucks` solution to the problem was to create a secure trading environment for its customers.
"Because security information is not the core business of a merchant as it is of a bank, we have partnered with a number of online retailers that will accept eBucks from our customers or rands from an FNB account."
Customers will visit the Web site of an online retailer that uses the eBucks` online payment solution. Once they have filled their shopping baskets, they are able to make payment through the eBucks.com site without having to give the merchant their details. Payment for the goods or services is made directly by the bank.
In this way, the customer`s peace of mind is assured as payment is made by eBucks with whom they already have an existing relationship of trust, as opposed to the merchant who may not be known to them.
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