The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers.

What is Pre-paid cash card?

Pre-paid cash card is a rechargeable stored value card that can be used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline system. The amount to be paid will be deducted from the value. Once the initial value has been completely used up, user can top up and continue using it to make transaction. With a pre-paid cash card, we can have faster journey and we do not need to carry so much cash with us all the time. With just a card we can go anywhere we want. It is so convenient and safe.

Prepaid Cash Cards – Why people use them?

Nowadays, people can limit their spending with their prepaid cash card that load funds onto the card and use the money. There are many people tend or already have their own prepaid cash cards, why is it so? The several reasons are as below:

1. Remain in control of one’s money, keep track all of activity online or by phone.

2. Free balance alerts –Some card providers will inform users on how much cash they have.

3. Eliminate check cashing fees and enjoy immediate access to your money through direct deposit of your paycheck, government payment or other income sources, no bank account needed.

4. Avoid bounced check fees; always know exactly how much money you have to spend. The prepaid card can help protect you from over spending.

Examples of Pre-paid cash card

Touch ‘n Go (TnG) smart card is an electronic payment system that can be used by Malaysian at all highways, major public transport in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park. Well, it is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry that enables consumers to buy dough nut, burger or fast-food from 21 outlets such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’ Donut. It is imitating the success of Hong Kong’s Octopus Card by setting 5 to 10% of the card holders for retail purchase as current target of the company.

Pre-paid Vista Cash Card is issued by Four Oaks Bank & Trust Company that given the opportunity for consumers with poor credit record and young children by not spending
more than the balance on the card. Visa permits travelers access to money at automated teller machines in 65 countries and book the train tickets by offering prepaid cash card such as Metro Card in New York City.

Octopus Card was launched in Hong Kong on year 1997, September. It is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card which used to transfer electronic payments in online in offline system. It is widely used in payment system for transportation, supermarkets, fast food restaurant, car parks and other pint of sale application such as service stations and vending machines that have achieved good outcomes.

For further information, please refer those links:

1.http://www.startecredit.com/creditpages/prepaid-credit-cards-applications-prerpaid-reloadable-credit-cards.htm

2. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5621787.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card

4. http://www.touchngo.com.my/

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Nowadays, cost of people living has increased and it indirectly creates many problems towards many peoples. Many people like to use future money (credit card) as they didn’t have enough cash in hands. This made the numbers of credit card debts increase until create the major problems of bankruptcies each year. This is because many people never realized of its consequences of financial and non financial perspectives.

Factor that bring the causes of credit card debts

1. Poor money management
Poor money management is one of the bigger causes that why people have accumulated many credit card debts. Due to poor money management, people are not aware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep monthly bills or receipt to record how many money are spends. Without keeping bills or receipt, people will never realized how much their spending on the product, and raise a number of debts in one month. With using credit cards, people will like to keep on spending with using the future money without perceive that they are unable to pay back the debts.

2. No saving cushion
When people using credit cards, they would like to use the future money and have not extra money to save in bank. When people are spending more than their income, they will be very hard to manage their savings accounts. The benefit of saving is to help you in cover your over expenses, in the case when you faced problems of divorce, job layoff, illness and others emergency expenses.

3. Unemployment
Due to bad economies, many people lost their job and unable to maintain their living expenses, this makes people using the future money (credit card) to cover their future living expenses. For households, they need cover many expenses purposes to maintain their current lifestyle by over using the credit card. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down to cover the reduction in income.

Prevention methods

1. Making a budget
We need to have a clear budget plan and need to keep all the expenses of receipt or bills in order to record how much money was use. This can help us to perceive that we will not overspending our budget that we have set before and prevent from the debts.

2. Self control and discipline
People who using credit cards should learn how to have a better self control and discipline in order to learn not to overspend it. People can control themselves by limit their credits cards amount by stop them to use the money if they was expenses more than their budget.

3. Contacting and dealing with creditors
You can address the problem with creditors instantly to indentify whether they could give revised on payment arrangement when you facing trouble on to pay off the debts. If the collection money from creditors is not fair, you can refer to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to indentify debts problems.

Electronic currency

Electronic currency also known as e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency and which refer to money or scrip that is exchanged only electronically. It involves the use of computer networks, internet, and the digital stored value systems. The examples of electronic currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit. EFT refers to the computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically while direct deposit is a banking term used to refer to certain systems used to transfer money.

Electronic Currency Trading System (ECTS) is an investment platform that offers its customers a safe, efficient way to trade foreign currencies against the strength and weakness of the US dollar. It involves converting base currency to a foreign currency at the market exchange rates through an online brokerage account.

Electronic currency allows its holder to buy the goods and services that the vastness of the internet offers. It can let you to do business and earn money from the investment by the lost transaction cost, it unlike the store business that will eat up your profit with a huge amount of fees. There are some examples of websites that can let people to do e-currency trading such as MG E-currency, JT GOLD.com.

There are some benefits of using the electronic currency. Firstly, the currencies can serve as universal media of exchange. If user acquired a global electronic currency, he or she can enter into any transactions around the world without paying any exchange fees. Secondly, the currencies provide global units of account that enable buyer and sellers able to compare which goods and services are worth without any calculation. The third benefit is the global e-currency serve as stable stores of value. The competition will drive out the unstable products from the market and the national monies, the private currencies will not be subject to the inflationary monetary policies of national governments and the special interests they represent.

Major electronic currencies on the net are:

PayPal located in San Jose, California, PayPal was founded in 1998 and was acquired by eBay in 2002. It is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service is available in many ways through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information. It enables global ecommerce by making payments possible across different locations, currencies, and languages.

Ikobo is an online payment system. Users can send and receive money online instantly from over 700,000 ATMs in over 170 international countries.

Moneybookers enable users to pay anyone with an email address. The recipient receives the payment instantly. It beats the cost, delay and inconvenience of traditional payment methods. Clients can send money from a credit card, transfer money to and from a bank account. Merchant business services offered with site integration for accepting payments.
Electronic currency- E-Micropayment systems:

The following are companies with e-micro payment products:

- Pay Loadz
- Bit Pass
- Peppercoin
- Pay stone

PayLoadz offers a unique digital download delivery service for anyone wishing to sell intangible goods online. Payloadz is a service to sell intangible products such as software, e-books, digital art, manuals, articles and files. It is an automated delivery service. This means that seller can go on vacation without worrying about sending download links to the consumers every time a payment is made.

Bitpass was one of the online payment systems for digital content and services. It was founded in December, 2002 and the co-founder was Kurt Huang. Besides, it also partnered with major technology and financial services companies such as Microsoft, PayPal, the Royal Bank of Scotland and First Data. Bit Pass system works similarly to a pre-paid telephone card such as you sign up for the service and put money into your account using a credit card or PayPal, which gives you credit towards the purchase of content.

Peppercoin(peppercoin.com) was founded by Ron Rivest and Silvio Micali with a vision to enable convenient and profitable credit and debit card use for small payments. The users do not require depositing credit in advance. All of the things they need to do, it is just enter their credit or debit cards information with the merchant online as usual.

Paystone Technologies Corp. is a private Internet payment and money transfer company dedicated to providing secure, easy, real time Internet transactions. Paystone was founded in 2001 and it provides an inexpensive online payment method without the risk of chargeback from fraudulent credit card use. Paystone can efficiently handle small financial transactions (micropayments) as low as $0.25. The ability to process micropayments opens a whole new world for entrepreneurs of all sizes. A small business or individual now has a method of generating revenue from their website quickly, easily and inexpensively. This makes a whole new range of content available to personal account holders. The large online merchant can also realize the full benefits of the Paystone solution to expand and increase the profitability of their business.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia.

What is 3rd party certification?

Third Party Certification (TPC) endorsement has been used as one of the methods to instill consumers’ trust. Creating initial trust through implementation of TPC is very important because the consumer has a tendency to trust brand names. The TPC programme requires the posting of a website privacy statement to inform a visitor about what personal information a web site may collect from them and how it will be used and disclosed among other features.

MCS Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a licensed Certification Authority ( CA ) operating within the Multimedia Super Corrider. MSC Trustgate was started their operation in Malaysia since 1999. It offers complete security solution and leading trust service that are needed by all the categories. Msc Trustgate helps to secure the open network communications and business transaction. The vision of Trustgate is to enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.

Trustgate provide Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to assist all the companies in conducting their business over the Internet. PKI Technologies help the organizations to enhance the security of the data and manage identification credentials from users and organization. It helps to secure by based on the exchange of digital certificates between authenticated users and trusted resources. The E-Commerce users can design their own PKI to meet the preferable security and technical requirements of their organization such as confidentiality where PKI users will use it to encrypt data that is stored or transmitted.

3rd party certification program will enhance customer trust because of:

1.Efficient of management of digital certificates.

· Customer authorization for digital certificate and certificate issuance is done via Web-based service. Both customer and administrator services are browser-based and accessed via the Web. Hence it will boost customer trust because they can access the digital certification and can inquiry about the certificate through online.

2.Complete control over digital certificate issuance, usage, certificate content.

· By having this application customer would have complete control over the service level and certificate unlike other public CA deployment model which customer only can rely on the public CA.

3.Easy to use and manage with Web-based user and administrator services.

· Customer can register or apply for extra certification through via web hence it will enable the customer to more believe on the third party programme because so easy to use and doesn’t have huge procedure to follow in order to register it.

4.Scalability

· Customer will have a better solution provided by the administrator if got certain or any threats happen toward the company system. They customer can contact the administrator hence the administrator will provide a solution to the customer to solve the problem. Hence it will increase customer trust because efficient and effective managed of the program.

VeriSign SSL Certificates is the public encrypted key that Webmaster sends to CA which is a standard part of most web server and web browser packages when works in conjunction with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. VeriSign will review the credentials and check through all the background of organization to ensure that the claim of organization before issuing any server certificate. The browser will verify its business purpose through ID automatically when browser connects to a legitimate site with VeriSign SSL Certificates. After that, information received by Web visitor is identical to encryption between browser and server and no modification is taken place.

VeriSign is one of trust brand on internet to further enhance operation of e-commerce because it gives confidence to customer in communication and online business transactions. In turn, the company will receive accurate information that the customer could not refute later. Additional protection against the misuse and expired certificates is provided. Thus, there was nearly one million times that people have clicked on VeriSign Secured Seals during year 2002.

Related links
1. http://www.msctrustgate.com
2. http://www.verisign.com

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

Internet is a public network that connecting millions of computers throughout the world. Through telephone wires and satellite links, internet users can share information in a variety of forms. When we surf the internet or register to become a member, the procedure we need is to fill in some personal information. Internet is not a safe place, because hackers have the ability to intercept and use that information, such as credit card numbers and expiry dates to falsely do the transactions. We need to take some activities to increase the internet security and decrease the data stolen probability.

Here are few approaches on how to safeguard our personal and financial data:

1. Password protect

Do not reveal any password that related our personal and financial data to anyone. After using any of the Financial Data Center or member services, must remember to log out properly before leaving the Financial Data Center. Avoid using passwords that are easy for someone to guess, such as the name of your favorite brand or your date of birth and never to write it down on the paper and put inside your wallet or briefcase.

2. Keep credit cards to a minimum

Use a credit card with a low limit while using online purchase or mail-order, because it may take risk if your personal and financial data steal for dishonest clerk. So we should not easily to disclose any personal and financial data information and only keep the ones you actually use and destroy any that you no use and shredding it.

3. Practice safe ATM use

Use your free hand to shield the keypad when entering your PIN. If you see anyone suspicious, do come back later. When your transaction is complete, pocket your card and any cash and count it later in the safety of your locked car or home.

4. Match your receipts to your billing statement each month

Make sure you have not been billed for fraudulent purchases. If you spot any suspicious transactions such as charges you don’t recognize, or duplicate charges. Therefore you must contact your card issuer immediately.

5. Encrypt the information before send it out

When the financial data is transmitted from one location to another, we should encrypt the information before send it out. This is a secure ways to protect our data from stolen by others, because the outsiders are unable to read the encrypted message, only you and the party who received your message can read through the information.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

What is Phishing?

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent (theft) process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing known as a nontechnical attack, it uses social pressures to trick computer users into compromising computer networks to which those individuals have access.

Following are the few examples of the phishing e-mails:
1. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/images/using/54304_fake_url_1.jpg
2. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/Phishing-email.asp

Prevention Methods:

1. Be cautious for opening file from emails that request of your financial information

We need to be cautious when opening any attachment or downloading files from e-mails that you received. You also need to aware regardless of who sent the e-mail to you. When you surf the internet, you need to be aware for the fake website which directly ask for your detail financial information and not to login the website, try to solve the problem at the bank itself.

2. Block the phishing e-mails by various spam filters

Phishers are usually use e-mails as “bait” to attract the potential victims. They can send out large amount of spoofed e-mails which are seemed from legitimate organizations. The phishers hide their identities when sending the spoofed e-mails, therefore, if anti-spam systems can determine whether an e-mail is sent by the attackers, the phishing attacks will be decreased dramatically.

3. Use strong passwords and change them often

Strong passwords combine with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, which make them difficult for other people to guess. Use a different password for your each account can help you in avoid them to access.

4. Don’t straight away click the suspicious website

Remember all the domain name of the company and try not to click the link that are available inside the suspicious website, because it may contain any fake website that will attract you to click in.

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

In this century, Internet is becoming more and more famous. It is becoming part of our life as a lot of things can be done with Internet such as online banking, online shopping, communicating with our overseas friends and so on. However, it is important to safeguard our data when online. It is an important issue on online security for all Internet users. It is sad to say that there are various threats to online security such as viruses, Malware, Adware, hackers’ attacks and Trojans. These are the common online threat and this can lead web users to financial loss, information theft and so on.

Examples of threat of online security:

Virus – it is a piece of Malicious software code that inserts itself into a host, including the operating systems to propagate and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. It requires the host program be run to activate it. The virus can easily spread by a user sending it over a network on the internet or by carrying it on a removable medium such as USB drive, floppy disk. The possible destruction of virus will be deleting important files and turning our computer into a worthless wreck.

Worms – is a software programs that runs independently and consuming the resources of its hosts in orders to maintain itself and capable of propagating a complete working version of itself onto another machine. When the compute infect of worms, the computer will slow starting and slow running. It’ll also face unexpected or frequent system failures. Therefore, the macro worm is a worm that is executed when the application object that contains the macro is opened or a particular procedure is executed.

Trojan horse – is programs that appear to have useful function but contains a hidden function that presents a security risk. Trojan horse unlike worms, which self propagate and require user cooperation. It’ll destructive program that can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on our system. Trojan horse are also known to create a back door on our computer that gives malicious users access to the system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised.

Securing Computer Networks

There have several effective security computer systems to help users to secure own data privacies.

1. Firewall

Firewall is a software application that acts as a filter between a company's private network and the Internet. As a result, there can reduce the possibilities to receive virus, worms and so forth into users' computer systems.

2. Anti-Virus

SoftwaresAnti-virus softwares are designed to ensure that computer system has maximum power against all kinds of malicious codes. Normally, they are effectively fast to handle the virus that have been detected in few seconds. Besides that, their security systems are helpful because they can be updated automatically to ensure that the security systems can be upgraded to against new malicious codes.

3. Hard Drive or External Hard Drive

You can either get another one hard drive to keep certain important or necessary data inside. Another way is that get an external hard drive that available you to take it to anywhere by keeping your own data inside. Normally the hard drive life is about 5 years long. Besides keeping data inside the hard drive manually, basically you can use another application such as Norton Ghost to make a full system backups or folder backups.

The ways to prevention the internet threat:Even though we are having the best Firewall or AntiVirus software are still not a surefire way of filtering what’s coming in on our internet connection, it still helps to have one installed. There are few ways we should remember to protect our personal information:

(1) Do not instantly open e-mail attachments from unknown sender. It is because the e-mails may contains the viruses.
(2) Do not provide any confidential information through e-mail, Instant Messages or Chat Messages because they are not safe.
(3) Always make sure that you know your website’s security. Check if the screen’s address bar changes from “http” into “https”