Internet Security and Your Credit Card.

There is still a certain level of fear among some consumers regarding the use of credit cards over the Internet. Hollywood films like "The Net" have only served to fan the flames of paranoia regarding personal privacy and the safety of web-based transactions. In reality, doing business on the Internet is easy, fast, inexpensive, and above all else SAFE!

To begin with, shopping with a credit card is an incredibly safe way of doing business, whether you are charging groceries at the corner supermarket or using your card on-line. In the event that you suspect a problem with your purchase, the credit card company will remove the purchase from your bill and the merchant is not paid. In the event your credit card information should ever be stolen, the credit card companies do not hold you responsible for unauthorized purchases. This applies to on-line as well as traditional methods of commerce. For most of us, the greatest risk of using credit cards lies in personal restraint. We sometimes spend more than we should and incur large debts.

To offer another counterpoint to the scare mongers, International Data Corp. estimated that over $5.7 billion dollars will be spent on-line this year (let's hope that a healthy percentage of that goes to Auntie Fashions, so that we can all quit our day jobs). Companies such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Wall Street Journal, FTD Flowers, Microsoft, Netscape and about a million others are proving that the Internet is not only a safe environment to do business, but that e-business works.

Auntie Fashions utilizes a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (or 'SSL'), which automatically encrypts your order information, keeping it private and protected until it arrives on our server. Secure Socket Layer technology is the industry standard for e-commerce transactions and it is used effectively and safely by virtually all the major players in e-commerce. The amount of effort necessary for even a seasoned 'hacker' to break into this type of system would quickly prove to be cost-prohibitive. Besides, if they were that clever, they'd be hacking into the banks that own the credit cards, and not bothering with the average consumer.

So lose the fear. Discover for yourself the ease and reliability that shopping on the Internet provides. Six million people a day can't be wrong.