A credit card is the easiest way to pay for something on the Internet, but buyers have security concerns. The credit card number may travel through dozens of computers between buyer and seller. A crook at any one of these computer sites could scan messages looking for numbers to steal. The risk is small, probably smaller than the chance you take in giving a credit card to a waiter or gas station attendant who then goes out of sight to process it. Paper credit card slips are kept on file for three years by merchants, leaving numbers and signatures as vulnerable to theft as they would be on an Internet computer.
Banks have their own concerns about credit card fraud on the Internet.
Mutual paranoia among buyers, sellers, and bankers has resulted in a fairly good security system, and it is being improved regularly. No system is perfect, but it may be safer than manual transactions. Newer versions of Web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, support secure credit card links. Log onto any large Web store site, such as a bookseller or record shop. It is safe to type in credit card information.