THE APPLICATION OF PRE PAID CASH CARD FOR CONSUMERS

PRE PAID GIFT CARD







PRE PAID CASH CARD

A prepaid card looks like a credit or debit card, and gives users the ability to purchase products and services with a card but it has a crucial difference. That is we can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card and will no has any risk of running into debt as the card itself has no credit or overdraft facility. Example of pre paid cash card is pre paid gift and pre paid mobile phone sim card and so on.

HOW IT WORKS?

The pre paid cash card work exactly like debit or credit card . What we need to do is hand over the card to the cashier , after that we will require to enter the PIN number (supplied with the card) on an electronic keypad or to sign a payment slip so your signature can be matched with that on the back of the card (if there is no Chip on the card). As long as we have enough balance , the transaction is complete and the amount we spend will be taken from our card immediately. Besides normal transactions, pre paid cash card also can be used in online purchasing.

To reload the card we can go to the post office, pay zone, through bank transfer or even using credit card . It is very convenient to the consumers as it can be use and reload anywhere , anytime.

Pre paid cash card can use to buy groceries and petrol, top up mobile phone, use in internet shopping, pay bills and even withdraw cash from an ATM.

ADVANTAGES

There are numerous benefits to the prepaid card. These include:

Availability - There are no credit checks, which means you can get a card without worrying about your credit history. All prepaid card providers will carry out an Identity check to confirm you are who you say you are.

Control - prepaid cards are an ideal way to budget for yourself or help to manage your children's spending. Like a credit card you get a full breakdown of spending on the card so you can see what has been purchased, who from and when.

No debt risk - With a prepaid card there is no chance of spending too much as you are limited to the amount you put on your card.

The card for travel - As well as being able to top up the card, depending on the specific provider, you will be able to use it at ATMs worldwide. Many providers now offer dollar and euro cards and offer a better exchange rate on their travel cards than what is commonly available from bureau de change.

DISADVANTAGES

Consumers might need to pay for some fees when using them . For example, card application fee, monthly services charge, card replacement fee , card renewal and so on. Besides that, it is not suitable for the consumers who do not have enough money and credit card is more suitable for them as they can repay it later.

LINKS:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/prepaidcards/prepaid-cards-guide3.asp

www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/publications/other/Prepaid/PDFs/Prepaid-eng.pdf

Electronic Currency

Electronic/digital currency has many names, which include electronic/digital money, electronic/digital cash. All of them refer to the same thing, which is money exchanged electronically through computer networks, the internet and many similar electronic payment systems, for example the electronic funds transfer (EFT) system.

One of my best friends used to work in Hong Kong, and when he told me about life over there, he mentioned a stored-value card that he used to make almost all payments that he had to make while he was there.

This stored-value card, called the Octopus card, is an example of the successful implementation of the e-currency payment system in Hong Kong. It is a rechargeable smart card where users must pay a refundable deposit upon obtaining one. The Octopus card can be used to pay the fares for almost all the public transport in Hong Kong, to make payments at convenience stores, shopping complexes, restaurants, parking fee and even on vending machines.

There are many different types of Octopus card for different types of citizens. For example, elderly citizens (60 years old and above) can purchase the green Octopus card, which when used at any card reader, will automatically deduct any available discounts.

Similarly, in the US, the Eagle Cash or EZPay system of stored-value cards is used at US military bases domestically and overseas. Soldiers’ wages are credited into these cards, and they can use these cards to pay for goods and services in the military bases.

In Malaysia, the concept of e-currency is growing, as can be seen from electronic payment systems such as TouchNGo which uses stored-value cards to allow users to pay for tolls, RapidKL buses and LRT tickets, and also parking fees.

The proliferation of e-currency is brought about by its enormous benefits. For individuals, e-currency provides increased security because there is no longer the need to carry cash and be exposed to physical theft. Organizations, on the other hand, can greatly reduces the labour hours needed for non-essential tasks like counting and safeguarding physical cash, as well as reducing transaction time.

However, just like everything else, e-currency has its disadvantages too, as it opens another window for fraud when hackers are able to break through the e-payment system's security. E-currency also makes it difficult to trace who made the payments.

Since the benefits of electronic currency far outweigh its costs, it looks like e-currency is here to stay. Who knows, maybe someday we will all live in a cashless world where notes and coins are only available on display in banks or muziums for our children to gape at. ^_^.

Bank customers' details are sold on ebay!!

Lost data: Bank details and personal information were sold on a computer on eBay

Computer hard discs containing 1 million sets of bank details was bought from ebay for just $35! This really a shock for the public because they afraid will become victims of fraud.In this incident information including the bank account numbers, phone numbers, mothers' maiden names and signatures of 1 million customers of American Express, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland were reportedly found on the computer.

HOW IT CAN HAPPEN?
Initially the computer had belonged to data processing company Mail Source, part of Graphic Data, a firm that holds financial information for organisations which was originally used at the firm's archive centre in Shoeburyness, Essex and the machine had been removed from the company's secure storage facility in Essex and sold on the internet auction site. Accidentally, Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford, bought the computer and found the information on the computer's hard drive.

WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCES?
This incident put the public into trouma. As their personnal information such as names, addresses, sort codes and account numbers, credit card numbers and security data such as mothers' maiden names are expose to others. It makes public lose confindent and it seems that there is a serious leakage in securing these information.

WHAT STEPS ARE TAKEN BY THOSE PARTIES?
According to the spokesman for Mail Source, which owns Graphic Data, put the situation down to an 'honest mistake'. Now,they already found out employee who took the server and sold it, but they believe that it was an honest mistake and was not intentionally act to sell it without the server being cleared.'They also stress that this is an isolated incident and are investigating how the server was removed and sold.'This is a very unfortunate incident and they are taking measures to ensure it will never happen again.'

Besides that, RBS, NatWest and American Express are analysed the data and will contact customers once they have analysed the data at risk.

Futher, The Information Commissioner's Office is investigating an apparent breach of the Data Protection Act.
A spokesman said: 'A data breach is very serious. Our investigation will look at the circumstances of how this happened, and we will be seeking an urgent explanation from Graphic Data to establish what has gone wrong and the steps that are being taken to prevent a similar incident occurring".

MY OPINION
I think that this is an honest mistake that happen unintentionally. However in my opinion in this 21st century , it is hard for us to delete emails or documents as it is usually very easy to retrieve them and in most circumstances we can even buy a software on the internet for £25 that will retrieve almost anything, unless the computer has been totally wiped or the hard drive is destroyed. So i hope that those parties will not repeat this kind of mistake again.


LINKS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1049121/Government-probe-launched-details-million-bank-customers-sold-eBay.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7581540.stm

http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=18894

The Threat of Online Security: How Safe Is Our Data?

In our current information age, the issue of the publics concern over the issue of online security being threaten is ever increasing, as they are constantly being invaded spam, cookies, viruses, worms and more. Security is defined as the protection of data against accidental or intentional disclosure to unauthorized persons, or unauthorized modifications or destruction. Privacy refers to the rights of individuals and organizations to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is to be transmitted to others (Grandinetti, 1996; Martin,).

In the recent years where more and more transactions and work are being done, published and sent online, the public is becoming more concerned over how their data is going to be used by the government, and more recently, businesses. This has thus led to the passing of various privacy protection laws.

Escalating further the publics' concern over their online security and privacy are the following news stories:-

1. The reporter who was able to purchase a list containing the names, addresses, ages and telephone numbers of young children, while using the assumed name of a notorious convicted murderer.
   
2. The Internet user in Oregon who paid $222 for a copy of the state Department of Motor Vehicles list of names and license plates and put it on the Internet, along with software for searching it.
   
3. The US News & World Report subscriber who sued the publisher for renting his name, address and subscription preference, accusing him of misappropriation.
   

The following have been provided as the top 12 ways to protect the users privacy online (EFF, 1999):

1. Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
2. Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser.
3. Keep a `clean e-mail address.
4. Do not reveal personal details to strangers or just-met-friends.
5. Realize you may be monitored at work, avoid sending highly personal e-mail to mailing lists, and keep sensitive files on your home computer.
6. Do not reply to spammers, for anything.
7. Be conscious of Web security.
8. Be conscious of home computer security.
9. Examine privacy policies and seals.
10. Remember that you decide what information about yourself to reveal, when, why, and to whom.
11. Use encryption.
12. Keep sensitive files on your home computer

At the end of the day, in my opinion, there is a very big lack of public confidence towards the online security today, which poses a very huge impediment to full scale electronic commerce. This issue of lack of confidence, i believe, is not only about security of value, but more so about trust in the information society.

Therefore to overcome this barrier, very party including the government, vendors and organizations should work hand-in-hand to take serious measures in increasing the level of online security of the public. Only through this, can the publics?trust and faith towards online security increase.

Although many are aware that the threat on online security will always be around, we should nevertheless try to reduce and overcome this information technology weaknesses for the good of the public.

Reference links:

1. http://hsbcprivatebank.com/services/online-security-five-golden-rules.html
   
2. http://www.maybank2u.com.my/online_security_watch/five_tips.shtml
   
3. www.pafis.shh.fi/~jirrat01/thesis/udo.pdf
   
4. http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/mobile_security/documents/mobile_agents/pp-agentSecurityFIN.pdf
   
5. http://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/history/CD/ande72a.pdf

"Fishing" for Personal Information

Every time I encountered this window while surfing online, I wondered - for perhaps one millisecond - what on earth 'phishing' is. But I would close the window impatiently without ever finding out what it was trying to warn me about.

This week, I finally find out, that phishing is actually fishing! The only difference is that phishing is fishing for an online user's personal information. I know now that the window meant well, by warning me against thieves going after my personal details.

How is this done? Phishing is usually done via emails, sent by scammers to gullible online users of various famous, legitimate website like eBay. These emails falsely claim to be from these websites, and will direct the users to a site that looks like the real one. Then, the users are asked to update personal information like account numbers, credit card numbers and passwords. Through this, the scammers will be able to 'fish' for the information they need for an identity theft.

An example of phishing is that of an imitation of PayPal. This phishing attempt could be detected from the spelling mistakes apparent in the email and also the generic greeting "Dear Accountholder", when a legitimate PayPal email would address the user with his or her real name.

Another example of a phishing incident happened to eBay users, where they received an email requesting a response to an allegedly uncompleted transaction. As soon as the user clicks on the "respond now" button, users were directed to an exact clone of eBay where their personal information was stolen.

So how do we go about preventing phishing from occurring? There are many ways, and the easiest method is to simply report suspicious emails by calling the customer service number of the alleged sender. Also, ensure that we do transactions only with legitimate, trusted websites.

Next, we can have several email address for different functions, for example, one for our online bank accounts, one for friends and family, and one for all the miscellaneous websites. This way, a phishing scam has less chance of entering our inbox, and we'll know which emails are from which sender.

Also, it is always advisable to install the now widely available security software packages and personal firewalls to ensure that there is proper encryption and prevention against other malicious codes that steals personal information from users of the World Wide Web.

In conclusion, phishing is a widespread 21st century crime, and it is up to all the online users whether to let their guards down, or to beat down these "phishermen" by taking immediate steps to secure their personal information online.

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Reference links:

• http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/phishing.htm
• http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Prevent-Phishing-Scams&id=1147318
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
• http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html
  

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How to safeguard our personal & financial data?

What's wrong with this picture? Nowadays, the Internet is no longer a safe place. Data is sent back and forth through various servers where the personal information and financial data are housed. Hackers have the ability to intercept and use that information, such as credit card number and expiry dates, to falsely do transactions. Protecting our personal and financial data is paramount these days.


How can we avoid the theft from website? We should take some steps to increase the internet security and decrease the data stolen probability. Below are some suggestions :

(i) Review our financial accounts regularly
Internet users should review the transaction confirmations and quarterly statements as soon as they receive and notify to the website immediately of any unauthorized activity.

(ii) Password protection
Password and other security features add layer of protection if used appropriately by viewing to the " Choosing and Protecting Passwords " and " Supplementing Passwords ". We should create password and PINs that would be hard for others to guess. People can use a combination of numbers and letters if possible.

(iii) Secure our computers
If we manage accounts online, we have to make sure that our computer has up-to-date spyware; antivirus protection program such as Symantec, Norton antivirus, AVG antivirus; and firewall software to protect ourself against viruses and worms that may steal or alter our personal and financial data.

(iv) Avoid accessing financial information in public
We should avoid to key in our personal identification data into public use computers at cyber cafe or public libraries.

(v) Safeguard our social security number
In order to protect our social security number, we should never carry the card that contain that security number with us, eg : membership card or student ID card with us. We must avoid sharing any username and password with anyone. To be more safe, we should avoid using the username or password for the financial website that use for the hobby or leisure website.

(vi) Conduct the transaction on trusted sides
People should always aware of the website they visited. The best way to protect our financial and personal data is by conducting the transaction with trusted, well known online retailers that using the reputable payment processors like Paypal or Google Checkout.





Because of the complexity of EC and network security, we should stay vigilant to protect our personal and financial information. Besides the security action that mentioned above, here is some others tips for the ways to protect our data : security tips