If you give your credit or debit card information to a company on the...

[Chloe J]

...Internet, can they steal your identity? I've found this real estate company online that seems to have some really good deals, but they ask for a membership fee of . I don't really care about , but I want to know: if I give out my information, could they steal my identity or take more money out of my bank account?

[John O]

Check out Asystematics if you want to know more about ID theft- Privacy and Credit card fraud- I order stuff online all the time but am very careful to establish who I am dealing with first- Don't undderstand why a real estate co needs your money just for the priviledge of buying something from them- send them an email & call them and ask why- Bogus sites can build a profile from credit card info- especially if you share address and telephone info- each peice builds on the next then the real damge starts when they do a change of address and apply for more credit cards- buy a car, house, etc. b careful

[inter13]

unless you can verify this online company is legit, don't trust them. you can see if your credit card company will give you a virtual card # - it is valid for only one transaction so if they would try to use it again it would throw up flags as attempted fraud and your actual card would be safe.

[Ella]

Yes. Of course that's fraud. But if you don't trust the company, buy a pre-paid card and use that.