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Put your money where your modem is
Don't want to give out your credit card number online? Join the club. But what's the difference between giving your number out online and giving it to someone on the phone? Or forking it over to that grinning waiter? You've got lots of ways to spend money on the Web. You don't like one method, how about another? As merchants, banks, and software companies scramble to make it easy for you to fork over those greenbacks, they present such options as digital cash and digital credit cards combined with encryption and digital identification. Although electronic -- or digital -- cash is not widespread yet, banks are issuing it, allowing you to purchase items at registered retail sites. Electronic credit cards are coming up fast, employing coded messages, secret numbers, and electronic buyer identification. Still nervous? Relax. Have a cream soda. Lots of companies are happy to have you to pick up the phone to order those lovely widgets off their Web sites. So you can enjoy the '90s in a very '80s way, if you so desire. Better still, a happy medium is on the way. You won't have to stick your sweet neck out, and you won't have to stick to old-school commerce. The three major credit-card companies -- Visa, MasterCard, and American Express -- have combined efforts to come up with a system to ensure your safety when purchasing on the Web. It's called Secure Electronic Transaction (SET), and you may be able to use it as early as next month. Although SET isn't ready yet, you can still buy things online. Plenty of people do it all the time, complete with receipts, UPS, the whole satisfied-customer experience. And they avoid the hassles of parking, traffic, lines at the post office, and all the irritations of doing the mall. So do not fret, my pet. But do realize that the Web is going to be a major player in the shopping industry, whether you use it or not. So conquer you fear, be a pioneer, and reap the rewards as an Internet consumer. Besides, where else are you going to find that hat? |
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