Working from home....security?

[James Burke]

I just paid for my order from a large national supplier...gave CC info...the whole 9 yards. The worker said she was working from home...which got me to wondering....how do they securely dispose of the information after they jot it down on a piece of paper?

My invoice came directly from their corporate offices as an email with the employee's personal telephone number.

I'm skeptical that some of these workers may be working from unsecured ISPs and un-encrypted voice and data could pose a huge risk.

I guess we'll need to be hyper vigilant for suspicious activity.


JB

 

[bannertime]

The best thing you can ever do is be vigilant and protect your self; rather than worry about if someone else is doing it for you. Use something like privacy.com or Capital One's virtual numbers to create virtual credit card numbers that can be activated or deactivated. They're generally setup to only work with a single merchant. If someone were to get the card information, it would decline everywhere except that merchant. Then don't forget to activate two-factor authentication for critical website like your bank or really any website that host your payment information. Use password generators and a secure password manager so that no password is the same.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

If you're using a credit card you protected. Don't use debit cards and don't verbally give credit card info over the phone. Tell them to send you an online invoice that you can pay yourself on the computer. When I send invoices, my customers pay them and I only see the last 4 digits of the CC.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Technically in order to hold PCI compliance you should never write a credit card down from a customer ever. But since it's a self reporting thing no one ever follows the rules. As stated above, you really should get an invoice that can be paid over a secure internet connection. Then again I have plenty of customers who don't trust the machine and still want to give me their number personally. At the end of the day ,if someone uses your card fraudulently, as long as you report it early enough, you get your money back pretty quick and easy.

 

[James Burke]

A cringe-worthy side note...

While I was waiting for an appointment in a business office one day, I was absolutely shocked to hear the receptionist (10 feet away) repeat every bit of credit card information back to the customer over the telephone. In some places, what used to be a back-office function has now become a front-line receptionist's duty....not good at all.

Now, it wrenches my gut whenever they read my information back to me...wondering who might be within earshot...especially with these home-bound workers.

JB

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

A cringe-worthy side note...

While I was waiting for an appointment in a business office one day, I was absolutely shocked to hear the receptionist (10 feet away) repeat every bit of credit card information back to the customer over the telephone. In some places, what used to be a back-office function has now become a front-line receptionist's duty....not good at all.

Now, it wrenches my gut whenever they read my information back to me...wondering who might be within earshot...especially with these home-bound workers.

JB

Again, using a CREDIT CARD will be your best bet. Doesn't matter who uses it... you find out it's being used, you instantly shut it down and they send you a new card. If it's a business card they usually overnight a new one. Debit cards are dangerous and should never be used.

 

[Billct2]

I thought business cards didn't have the same protections as personal cards?

 

[Billct2]

Not all business cards have the same protections. I have two that do have fraud protection. I remember hearing about this years ago, maybe more include it now.
https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/business-credit-card-was-stolen-what-to-do/

 

[CanuckSigns]

We had our company Visa card compromised 3 months ago, someone bought $1500 worth of shoes with it. I called up the bank and cancelled it. I had a new card 2 days later, I was never expected to pay for the fraudulent charge.

The only hassle was having suppliers phone me up for the new card number, but it let me review which suppliers I wanted to automatically charge my card.

 

[APCInk]

I just paid for my order from a large national supplier...gave CC info...the whole 9 yards. The worker said she was working from home...which got me to wondering....how do they securely dispose of the information after they jot it down on a piece of paper?

My invoice came directly from their corporate offices as an email with the employee's personal telephone number.

I'm skeptical that some of these workers may be working from unsecured ISPs and un-encrypted voice and data could pose a huge risk.

I guess we'll need to be hyper vigilant for suspicious activity.


JB

Hello James,
First off I hope that you and your family are well and safe! And I love your tag line "Being a grandpa is more fun than working"! I couldn't agree more with that. My wife and I have 9 grandchildren and they are the loves of our life. Truly grandkids are blessings from GOD!

Not sure what supplies that you need, but you can order from our website storefront and pay with cc at check out. Be assured that our site is secured, encrypted and cc info is not saved. We send order confirmations immediately and tracking info within 4 hours. You can find us at APCink.com. If you have any questions I can be reached at john@apcink.com.
Warmest regards,
John Amann

 

[Jester]

James, I'm a little late to this party, but I've turned on the email alert notification from our credit card provider (using online banking) and set it to the lowest trigger, typically $1. Scan the card at a store and my phone dings with an email within a second or two. Same thing when purchasing online - click "Buy" and the notification email is in my inbox before the order confirmation from the vendor arrives. I'd rather be deleting these extra emails when I make a known purchase than miss a charge we didn't authorize, possibly for days or weeks.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

James, I'm a little late to this party, but I've turned on the email alert notification from our credit card provider (using online banking) and set it to the lowest trigger, typically $1. Scan the card at a store and my phone dings with an email within a second or two. Same thing when purchasing online - click "Buy" and the notification email is in my inbox before the order from the vendor arrives. I'd rather be deleting these extra emails when I make a known purchase than miss a charge we didn't authorize, possibly for days or weeks.

I have this option setup too on my Capital One card. I like it... my wife doesn't because she knows every time she uses it I get a "ding"

 

[netsol]

If you're using a credit card you protected. Don't use debit cards and don't verbally give credit card info over the phone. Tell them to send you an online invoice that you can pay yourself on the computer. When I send invoices, my customers pay them and I only see the last 4 digits of the CC.

but be careful paying invoices from an email. you need to "float" your mouse over the link and look for misspelled url's. a LARGE client of ours got hit twice last year. one round cost them $50,000. there were 2 l's in the name, very hard to spot if you are not a proofreader

contrary to popular opinion this seems to happen, at least in our experience, more often with microsoft hosted emails. if my domain & yours are both O365 hosted and i am a crook it appears to be easier for me to "reach" into other domains

we had a law firm who would constantly get "last minute change for that wire transfer" sent to other participants in a closing, within minutes of a scheduled resl estate closing. we were told it was some sort of abuse of RSS feeds,

so, double check those links before you pay. and as tex said, use credit card. for protection, do not give debit card or worse yet, bank account info