I wanted to replace my car’s worn-down speakers so I went to Pep-Boys to check out a few, got sold on some salesperson’s talking and purchased a set right there on the spot without even knowing any real details. I then did the research afterward and found out I paid twice as much for them as I would if I buy them online. After finding a set online, I began the checkout process. When I got to confirmation page, it asked me to log into Verify by Visa, which then asked me for the last six digits of my social security number as well as my birthday. So the site knew pretty much everything about me at this point except for what I had for breakfast this morning. I had to thoroughly research the credibility of the site as well as the Visa program for a good half hour before I reluctantly confirmed the purchase, but I realized that purchasing online is way too much of a pain in protecting myself from identity theft and scams. And I remembered that’s exactly why I usually preferred to buy things in stores even at a slightly higher cost.
This whole suspicion stems from a purchase I made over the summer that ended up being a complete fraud, and one that I probably should have spotted right off the bat since it was selling products at a bit unreasonably low prices. As a result, I’m now also throwing away $12.99 a month for some identity protection program that I enrolled in for the first three months for free and now I’m just stuck in. I really need to call in and cancel.. this thought always reminds me of the ‘Friends’ episode where Chandler tries to quit the gym.
Right now, I also badly need a new debit card because it’s about to crack in half. So I went to the Bank of America site which is definitely secure, right? But as soon as I went into request a new card and it began to ask me for all of my information, I decided I’ll just go into the bank tomorrow to order one in person. Way to go, internet.
