Carlos Felipe Salgado Jr. On May 21, Salgado went to San Francisco International Airport to seal a lucrative business deal. But the buyer turned out to be working with the FBI, and Salgado was arrested on the spot. According to the criminal complaint, Salgado, alias Smak, has acknowledged that he hacked into an Internet service provider and stole the credit card numbers. Yet, the idea that Salgado could nab 100,000 credit card numbers that way is unnerving. A recent survey by Nielsen Media Research found that the main reason consumers don't shop on the Internet is that they don't trust the payment method.
Many experts say such fears are unwarranted.
Despite a few high-profile cases, there is no evidence of widespread fraud. And most Web sites use sophisticated encryption methods to shield transactions. I would say no. As Internet proponents like to point out, most consumers don't mind handing their credit card to a waiter or revealing a card number to an operator on the other end of a toll-free phone call. In either case, the chances of the number being intercepted and stolen are higher than typing a credit card number into a secure, established Internet site.