Quote:
Originally posted by Moneyguy1
Of course, the horse is already over the horizon, but am I the only one that (a) orders nothing over the internet (I do my research including financial background of the company in question) and (b) NEVER give out any personal data or account/SS numbers over the internet?
I trust phones more than the internet and I trust snailmail best of all for financial transactions.
I am so 1990s.......
|
You are definitely not the only one. I am a total luddite about this stuff, but being careful is far better than trying to recover from doing something - shall we say - convenient.
Just went through a mortgage application using a major bank that typically gives us fabulous service. When the loan guy called we did a prelim interview and I determined that I liked their rates and terms and he liked what I had to say. Then he offered to take the application over the phone. Ohhhhhhh kaaaaaaaay??? I informed him that there were two prerequisites to doing business: (1) none of my data could be maintained on a laptop or removable media of any type, and (2) he could not submit any of my info over a wireless connection or web site. Now we have a problem. Finally he agreed to meet me at a branch and conduct business over the branch's hard-wired secure network -- and he admitted that one of his co-workers just had a laptop stolen with client data aboard. I rest my case.
For other data it's either face-to-face or I'll do some biz via fax, but the cover letter states my security responsibility requirements including the above.
It's really easy for financial institutions to offload all the liability to the customer in exchange for "convenience". I don't bite.
To continue the rant: I've used TurboTax for years. Since tax returns are an identity thief's dream, I'm rather nuts about how I do things. Paper returns, etc. The computer I use for tax prep is physically disconnected from the internet - something I consider important as TTax wants administrator privileges, scripting enabled, and like to do tech support via chat/im. Duh!!!!! Updates can be downloaded and manually processed (though they don't make it easy to figure out how) and I always make sure to call them and request a state CD and an update CD. TTax makes it *really* hard to find that phone number. It's 800-624-8384 for you TTax users.
Done ranting for now. Later I might rant about the background check my wife was asked to submit to (online). NFW!