Give out your VISA number through the e-mail?

[Rockin' Robin]

I wish to reserve a rental car from DAMIGOS RENT A CAR in Santorini.

 

They want me to give them my VISA number and expiration date to hold the car for me. They want me to provide the information by regular e-mail eventhough it is not a "secure site."

 

Is this safe to do?

[nparmelee]

I wouldn't, I'd ask for a fax number or phone number to call them. Unless you need an automatic or there are a lot of ships inport that day, I don't think a reservation is really necessary.

[alcman]

You might consider two options:

the first is to send the number in segments across more than one email.

 

the second, if you have MBNA or citibank (don't know about otherr banks) is to use their special services that allow you to generate a single use, fixed amount number related to your actual card. That number, if stolen, cannot exceed the amount you preset and would not expose the rest of your account. It is also limited to the vendor who uses it sot aht if taken later, it is useless.

 

Jerry

[longislandfamily]

I wish to reserve a rental car from DAMIGOS RENT A CAR in Santorini.

 

They want me to give them my VISA number and expiration date to hold the car for me. They want me to provide the information by regular e-mail eventhough it is not a "secure site."

 

Is this safe to do?

 

I recommend that you break up the e-mail into 2 parts, sent a day apart. Or, if you have access to two different e-mail accounts ( home & work?) send half from one and half from the other.

[vivian02]

I had this problem three years ago when booking hotels in Germany. My son is a banker and he suggested sending the information in two separate E-mails. I did this and nobody had a problem with it. Since then I have had no problems.

If you really want to feel safe try this. E-mail the rental car company your present credit can number and then cancell the credit card. Have the Credit card company reissue you a new credit card and everything will be fine. Good luck. Tim

[Globaliser]

A more secure way is to email half the number, and fax the other half of the number. If email tends to route through the same hubs all the time, repeated emails will be exposed to the risk that someone will be looking out for them. But if you email half and fax the other half, it is virtually impossible for anyone to be able to get access to both modes of communication at the right times. But you remain protected in case either communication goes astray.

[NAS-KARR]

I did all of ours via FAX.......no problems..no sweat !

 

 

CIAO,

[Seabee]

When I think about how many potential miscreants I hand my credit card to each week, I don't see a problem with putting it in the hands of a potential cyber-miscreant.

[Globaliser]

When I think about how many potential miscreants I hand my credit card to each week, I don't see a problem with putting it in the hands of a potential cyber-miscreant.

The people who take your credit card when you buy something in a shop generally don't take enough information to be able to use your credit card number again fraudulently. If you transmit enough information over an email to allow a merchant to process a remote transaction, you also hand enough information to someone intercepting the email to use your card fraudulently. That's the difference between the two situations.

[Hlitner]

Its funny about us Americans. As somebody already stated, we have no problem giving our credit card to total strangers in restaurants, shops, etc...and allowing them to disappear with those cards. This is something that would not generally be tolerated in most of Western Europe where they do not let a credit card out of their site. In many places, the waiters swipe your card at tableside using a wireless device that completes the entire transaction and prints out your receipt. So, to sum things up, we give our credit cards to strangers...but we are afraid to e-mail our credit card number to a business. Sure makes sense to me.

 

Hank

[klauer]

I think the same thing about faxing a credit card number. How many times do you see a received fax just sitting in the fax machine until someone picks it up? And if you are "in the computer" at a store, an employee would have access to your address to go with your credit card number and expiration date.

 

BTW, I do use credit cards. But I am really careful about checking all the charges, no matter how I have given out the number.