Last time I was in Europe, I noticed that when I paid in a restaurant with a credit card, the waiter would bring a little terminal to the table to run the transaction.  Apparently, it would be unheard of for them to take your credit card away and process it where you couldn’t see what was going on.  Clever idea, I thought.

Things really clicked for me when I saw this piece in TechNewsWorld about Identiy Fraud.  It begins, “Many people are wary of making credit card purchases over the Internet, but there’s a whole lot more identity theft going on in the real world than online…” and goes on to state that the majority of identity theft comes from simple theft of credit cards, wallets, checks and other sensitive offline paperwork.  Phishing, where scammers use online methods to trick you into giving up your data, was only four percent of identity theft, and computer viruses accounted for eight percent.

This is not to say that anybody should get complacent, but rather that threats are all around, not just online.  When making any transaction - online or off - you should be sure that you trust the merchant and the means of payment.  When making a donation, make sure you understand who’s collecting the money and what it’s going to be used for.   I always want to ask those chuggers in the street about those things.