The seamless world of the Internet has broken open the physical barriers that existed across regions on the Globe. Today, therefore, you could be sitting in Munich and buying goodies from Seoul. Very convenient, and thrilling. But, when you pay for your goodies and swipe you're Credit Card, are you sure, you are paying only for what you paid for? Chances are your Credit Card Information traverses through alien territory into the wrong pair of hands. The result, the next morning, you will find your Bank account eroded or emptied?  Not a situation that most of us can afford or enjoy.

How do we then transact on the Internet and yet safeguard our hard earned monies from those Electronic pirates? The answer is relatively simple. Every time you choose to buy product or services through web-sites, before entering your Credit Card and other personal information look for information on whether the payment gateway is secured. Informed customers would always prefer to transact their business through secure sites and this will automatically bring in more business to Websites secured through SSL certificates from well known providers.


Payment gateways are secured through SSL or Secured Socket Layer. When you enter your personal and or Credit Card information into a secure site, an encrypted public key is created. This is termed as a handshake to authenticate safe transaction. The unique encryption method which gets established in the process will have a unique session key. This process protects theft of valuable data and only the transaction that you intend to complete is processed.

SSL certification has been found to be very reliable across, Internet users and also among the customers. These certificates are issued by a reliable and trusted authority, the Certificate Authority. The web-site through which you are attempting to transact business carries signs of the agency which has issued the SSL certificates. There are other similar agencies too, which offer these SSL certifications. When you click on the sign, the details of the certifying agency are displayed.

When you click on such secured domains, your system generates a SSL handshake which is accessed by the web-site server. The unique encryption method employed then allows a secure transaction to go through.

Why all this bother?

When you are transacting valuable business or even sending across precious data, it is necessary to route them through secure servers which have the seal of security such as an SSL certificate. In the absence of this Security, it would compare with sending a snail mail in a transparent envelope.

For E-Commerce and other Web-site owners, the SSL certification acts as a stamp of credibility and assurance of safety to their valuable customers.

For the Service Providers and other Vendors/Merchants in the Internet world, exhibiting their site security sign – a reputed one at that, not only assures the customer that the information he parts with will be securely handled, but also separates them from the crowd. Informed customers would always prefer to transact their business through secure sites and this will automatically bring in more business to Websites secured through SSL certificates from well known providers.

We should be aware that online credit card scheme is rampant nowadays and sparing yourself to be the victim is a wise thing to do. I read from a certain article that the importance of protecting your credit card information is even more essential now because of the rise of online shopping. As such, it's wise to be proactive in preventing such thing from happening to you. Furthermore, the responsibility always lies with credit cardholders to safeguard their credit cards.

Protecting your self against online credit card fraud is becoming a must for both the card issuing institution and card owners.