FWIW I have purchased a HUGE amount of "stuff" online since consumer e-commerce was first available, somewhere around 10 years ago. (And some stuff well before that in the pre-WWW years.) In fact I buy just about everything except groceries and (sometimes) clothes that way. I have had virtually no problems or losses in that entire time, other than a ~$40 ripoff on ebay several years ago.
With today's encryption technology, credit card fraud protection monitoring, and other measures, I believe you are far more vulnerable to fraud or identity theft from "low-tech" perpetrators than from e-commerce transactions. For instance, many of us discard (or used to) credit card receipts, statements, old checkbooks, etc in our trash cans which sit out on the street all night! Or we leave our card for hours with a bar wench while we get drunk and she seriously contemplates a bonus on top of her $7.65/hr wage.
Bottom line is that as long as you use a major credit card and are careful about the vendors you deal with, the odds are very strong in your favor.
BTW - nice camera choice! I was leaning towards a D70 acquisition for my upcoming birthday but now I might wait awhile to see what happens for the xmas season. I rarely have time to shoot pics right now anyway.
