Floolowing this thread and a few general comments. Having had my credit card compromised several times over the 45+ years that I have been using them I have found that Visa has reasonable responses to credit card fraud. I do have a MC card but use it very infrequently and just about never on the internet. I have found that as soon as the problem is recognized you can go back and flag invalid transactions and they will be reversed. Not sure if it still applies but there was a limit on liability for fraudulent use of your card but it has been a very long time since I actually read the fine detail in the T's and C's. I do not use a debit card because the banks took the position that any fraud was the customers fault. Once again this may no longer be true. I do not use gift cards but that is not for any reason other than there have seemed to have no value to me. Then there is https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/apple_dev_bad_gift_card_code/ Of the card problems I have had over the years the egregious ones were caught by the card companies. The smaller ones have been double billing for things like gas. The latest issue was someone managing to use my card with Amazon to buy some small items. This was possibly to test to see if the number would work. Rule #1 is to make sure you track all your transactions and reconcile your monthly statements against your purchase slips. Its a pain I know but it insures that you do not get charged for stuff that you did not purchase. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || home: (905)513-7688 alvin@netvel.net ||