Many people are under the mistaken impression that their email messages are private.
Sending an unencrypted email message is akin to opening the window and shouting - loudly. Securing your personal email with a digital certificate is surprisingly easy and can be accomplished for no charge with a Thawte personal digital certificate . An interactive web site which communicates with customers has special security requirements. BOTH as the customer sends it to the site, and as it gets processed through the merchant system. If the company is performing the batch processing 'manually,' be certain that the credit card information is also encrypted as it is retrieved from the web server, either via https or encrypted email.