Fraud with credit cards seems to be all over the place and crooks are fond of using the internet to steal credit card information, due to the privacy it offers. Many people believe that the only way to protect themselves is to stay away from purchasing online altogether. While this is a method to prevent credit card information from being stolen but it also means one can never purchase anything online again. The online marketplace for goods and services is expanding at an alarming rate because people are aware of the ease with which they can find the best deals while shopping online. If one does not shop on the internet, you'd be giving up on all the great bargains. Utilizing this method to prevent credit card fraud is like choosing not to fly on planes again to protect yourself from terrorists. True, one would not become a victim in any terrorist plot which involved planes. However, it also means having to deal with the inconvenience of not being able to fly while traveling. As with all things on the planet, key is not to avoid the problem, but to understand the issue and adopt an effective strategy to reduce the risk of being a victim to fraud with credit cards when shopping online.

First, let's talk about steps one can take if credit card fraud has already happened. There is no need to panic. Once the cardholder reports that their credit card information is compromised and the credit card company will not hold the cardholder liable for any fraudulent charges, even for charges made before reporting the credit card information is stolen. A credit card provider will then shut down that card from further use and issue a new card within one or two weeks, but this is still an issue that many would prefer not to go through, if possible.

Online shoppers can use Google's safe Browsing Tool to check if a website is safe to browse in the event that one is able to trust Google of course. This tool will inform you whether a site is suspicious or not, at the time that Google last scanned it, and also if the website has did anything suspicious before, and also report when it's connected to sites that are suspicious, even when the website does not do any thing that is suspicious. To see if a website is safe, simply copy and paste "http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=" into the address field on the browser, and then add the url of the site to be visited. For example, to a company's website, just enter "http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=websiteurlhere.com" into the address bar of the browser being used. Once you've entered this the Google tool will pop up a basic half page report on whether the site that you are looking at is secure or not.

Another layer of protection you can take while shopping online is to use trusted 3rd payment options. Most people have heard of PayPal. They are probably the most popular third payment method used in the world. They permit users to make payment for goods and services via them. This means, for instance, that if a buyer purchases a product, she is not directly paying the website that she is shopping on. The amount is Amazon gutschein due to PayPal after which PayPal reimburses the merchant, this means that the retailer is not able to see her credit card number and the credit card information was never transmitted over the internet during the transaction. It does not matter if the customer shops at only one or 100 websites. In the event that an alternative payment method from a third party was utilized credit card data was not transferred, meaning that the data isn't floating across the internet on every site where a purchase was made. Other payment methods that are third party like PayPal include, Google Wallet and Amazon Payments.

Armed with this information, shoppers online can now be sure that the websites they browse are safe to shop on, and also avoid entering sensitive information when buying. There is no reason to miss out on all the great deals when you shop online for fear of the theft of credit card details.