Even though there's much talk about security on the Internet, its often
safer than mail order.
"I don't think you'll ever completely eliminate fraud," said Greg Hayman, general manager of TecInfo, an internet service provider, in Leland. "Look at mail order catalogs. That fraud's been going on for years. If you did a comparison, I don't think you'd find the percentages of fraudulent transactions too much different from mail order. After all, you're giving a credit card number to someone you have no clue about. Internet websites have validation procedures to verify cardholders' identity. Mail order doesn't."
"We've never had a problem," said Cindy Tyler of Mississippi Gift Company in Greenwood. "When customers enter credit card information on our website, they know it's in a secured area."
Jerry Ables, vice president of Bank of Commerce, said he has "complete satisfaction" with the bank's website.
"Customers do not access our main frame banking," he said. "When they access their Internet banking accounts, they access an offsite remote server protected by firewalls and encryption boards and circuits. It's standard for most banks. Our package is one used nationwide by a number of banks."
Internet safety is "probably always on the forefront of any conversation," Hayman said.
"People we do business with who handle secured credit card information don't have any problems," he said. "Whenever we deal with businesses, we always bring up security issues. If a company deals with a lot of proprietary information or credit card information, certain steps can be taken. Some cost money, others don't cost anything. For example, we work with companies that create programming that can be integrated into the environment to handle certain authentication functions."
To utilize the Internet to its fullest capacity, a firewall is typically installed, he said.
"TecInfo does not put in access to a business without using some form of firewall because that's the main method of protection - a business's best line of defense," he said. "There are different varieties of and various costs to firewalls. It depends on what you're buying and what component within the network that firewall will actually run."
Validation of credit card numbers, shipping information and multiple ship-to locations in a transaction is advised, Hayman said.