Credit Card Debts:Causes & Prevention

Nowadays, it seems like credit card has become a necessity for the people in the world. What is a credit card? A credit card is exactly what the name implies. It is a card that enable you to use on credit. Each time swapping the credit card represent you are borrowing money from the credit card issuer and debts are increasing. Credit cards are convenience while using. However, once it is being abused, it can be a nightmare as well as cause unbelievable stress.

Causes of credit card debts:

Poor money management - Money management include saving for emergency. Without saving or save too little, one will reach to credit card during emergency. Besides that, one should also have a monthly planning where it will give you an idea where the money would be spent. Without planning, you might be spending unnecessarily and increase the debts.

Excessive spending(Maintaining expenditure on a reduced income) - Spending excessively is one of the most common things that people is facing. People always cannot control and manage their expenses according to the deduction on salary. They often let the debts to fill their needs. It will make themselves to double or even triple the monthly chargers on the credit cards.

Medical expenses - In this modern society, there are many unpredictable medical problem which occur suddenly without any sign or warning. Due to the enforceability, people often being trapped to the medical debts through credit card.

Too depending on credit card - Since the credit card is easy to be used, one tends to be depend on it. They will prefer to make payment by credit card rather than cash or write a check. Once people is getting into this habit, they will be easily cause a lot of debts.

Prevention of credit card debts

Manage the finances - One needs to set up a budget planning in order to plan for the monthly transactions. They are required to determine their income and needed expenses. They are able to cut out unnecessarily expenses. Besides that, people need to have a saving plan too. With the saving plan one can avoid from credit card debts. They are also able to purchase what they desired without getting into debts.

Choose the right card - People is encouraged to choose the right credit card that provide the best services as well as benefits. People should get their credit card with no or low interest and fees. This will enable them to pay lesser when come to payments.

Pay on time - Paying the debts on time is the best solution to avoid from debts. Moreover, one should often remember to make payment before the due date to avoid from any interest being charged unnecessary. One should also make sure that they make full payment and not only the minimum payment.

Right perception on credit card - One should always view the credit card as the same with cash. Having this perception will create more awareness on spending too much through credit card.

Prevention is definitely better than cure. Being caught in the debts problems is usually a tough process to go through. Hence, there are some useful tips in order to prevent credit card debts.




Sources from:

• http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debtguide2004/top-10-causes2.asp
  
• http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/creditcardmistakes.html
  
• http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html
  
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tips-on-debt-prevention-and-management.html
• http://www.stop-credit-card-debt.com/2008/07/24/tips-on-credit-card-debt-prevention/

How to Safeguard Personal & Financial Data

In the internet age, there are millions of people accessing to internet database every seconds. Therefore, the need of safeguard the data is more important than previous time. Failure to safeguard the data will lead to major threats such as data corruption, identity theft and malicious attacks.

One of the easiest way to safeguard the data is to eliminate own paper trail. People are advised to shred the old documents such as bank account statements, credit card bills or even direct mail before they are being thrown. This is to ensure that no other people can access to those data. Therefore, one should own a paper shredder.

Besides that, one should choose their pin or password wisely. Although it is often better to choose something which are easier to remember, avoid setting birth date or identity card number which can easily figure out by the thieves. Moreover, a password or pin which consists of symbols, numbers, and letters is always more security compare to non combination password. However, password should be changed regulary to alleviate others from accessing the data.

Furthermore, one should often aware and check the expenditure items to avoid any abnormal expenses. If any unrelated expenditures are found, they need to search for the causes to ensure that their personal data is not being abused by other unathorised people.

Whenever is possible, pay cash when shopping at stores and minimized the usage of credit cards. It is advisable to use only a single credit card for online shopping or financial transactions. Limit a small credit for the credit card that use for online purposes. This is to prevent once the card is being stolen, the thieves are unable to swap much before the card is being terminated.

Since nowadays computers are wisely used for personal and financial transactions, one should protect the computer's security. People should install anti software in their computer to avoid the virus from disrupt or corrupt the data operations. As viruses are created everyday, the anti virus should be updated all the time so that the security is protected.

An essential tool to further safeguard personal and financial data is to employ a good, secure data encryption program. When the data is being encrypted, only the customers and data owner can access to it. Data must be encrypted while it is stored on the storage array, as well as during transmission over private or public networks.





Sources from:

• http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/general/2006/09/23/safeguard-your-financial-life.aspx
• http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2007/03/11/104334/FSC-urges.htm

The application of pre-paid cash card

Prepaid card, is a payment card, pre-loaded with your own money, which can then be used wherever the payment is accepted, including on the internet and abroad. [1] Prepaid cash card has been used widely. More and more consumers and businesses are using prepaid cash card as its alternative payment method.

To name few, here it is:

Public Bank UTAR Debit Card


Debit Master Card

All of the above are the companies that offering prepaid cash card, with the same concept - paid first and use it later. Let me give you an example on debit card. Debit card consumers can only make thier payment or spend their money when they have deposited money into thier prepaid debit card account.

So why most people prefer prepaid card?

Controlling
The main reason is that prepaid card can control consumer's spending. So it is suitable for everyone including those who has bad credit control. By using this card, consumers can clearly see how much the balance is available in thier account. This can limit thier spending to certain level every month.

No debt risk
If there is no balance in consumers' account, the transaction of purchasing goods or paying bills will be declined. Therefore, consumers do not have the chance to spend over the limit and they are able to control the amount of money that they wish to spend in certain period.

Safe
Carrying prepaid cash card is much safer compared to carrying cash since it is accepted worldwide. As long as those credit cards come with Visa or Master Card logo, it will be accepted anywhere.

Convenient
Prepaid cards will be the best option for going overseas. Firstly, consumers need not to bring huge amount of cash in hand. Secondly, they need not to worry if they lost thier cash when travelling. Unlike cash, prepaid cash card can be replaced if it is stolen or lost. What users need to do is by reporting the loss of card. Besides, prepaid cash card is as easy as ATM card, where you can withdraw and transfer money to friends and family.



How does e-commerce has taken place?

In fact, there are many e-commerce site which introducing, offering, and selling various prepaid cash card. This includes debit card, prepaid visa card and prepaid master card from different banks (CIMB, Maybank, Hong Leong).

Here are the websites:

• 

• 

• 

Sources from:

• http://www.what-prepaid-card.co.uk/features/what-is-prepaid.html [1]
  
• http://ezinearticles.com/?Advantages-And-Disadvantages-Of-A-Prepaid-Card&id=372866
• http://www.financenewspro.com/advantages-of-prepaid-card/
• http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/

Ecommerce Failure and Its Causes

In this modern society, ecommerce has been widely used all around the world. However, there are still some large ecommerce companies that are unable to maintain themselves through ecommerce. There are some failures include Kozmo.com,Flooz.com,Webvan.com and Boo.com.

Boo.com was launched in 3rd November 1999. The funding is around $125million which was invested by the investors such as Benetton and Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH. At that time, Boo.com was a famous ecommerce site with high profile. After some times, Boo.com was flopped.

Boo.com failed due to not well planning before doing so much. They just established online shops in many countries without proper considerations. Besides that, Boo.com also faced poor web design as well as usability. All the visitors are not able to reach their desired destination once they click due to annoying animated graphic. Moreover, the visitors are being limited to the transaction they made to three per twenty minutes which will discourage them to shop at Boo.com again.

On the other hand, Boo.com also having bad marketing. They have marketed themselves as premium products with an expensive charges. This is one of the causes of failure because most of the people buy online is attracted by the cheaper price.

Furthermore, the bad planning in several fields have causes Boo.com to fail. The founders are too ambitious over their business planning and affected their quality of service. They wanted to dominate the market once Boo.com was started and did not want to start from the beginning(small). The founders also did not have brick and mortal experience.

Inefficiency in managing the capital is the cause of failure. They spent $125million just within the six months in order to dominate the market without proper planning. Therefore, they had faced some issues problems such as languages. They involved huge amount for their monthly maintenance fees for 3D photograph, employees benefits and technology costs.

Perhaps, if Boo.com had given good customers experience, convenience as well as speed of process that would won the customers' heart they would be sustained in the ecommerce now.


Sources from:

• http://edigitalretail.com/greatest_dot_com_failure.html
  
• http://edigitalretail.com/Most_Famous_Dotcom_Failure.pdf
  
• http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/dotcomfailures.htm

Review a local,transactional e-commerce site

Commonly, we know that e-commerce consist of the process of buying, selling or exchanging products, services and information through computer networks. It other words, it is a business activity that conducted by using electronic data transmission technologies.

One of the local e-commerce site will be Lelong.com.my


Lelong.com.my was founded by the Interbase Resource Sdn. Bhd. which is a relatively young company that has come long way from its humble beginnings. However, the firm established a firm footing in the e-commerce arena. Therefore, Lelong became a pioneer aution e-market place in Malaysia. Thus, their mission is "Serving the community and bringing a high standard of quality into homes and businesses by providing an avenue for online trading at a low cost."

Consequently, Lelong is using a method that everyone is familiar with, which is an international comparison. Thus, the style and function of Lelong.com.my is similar to the international auction site such as eBay.com. Lelong auction site is taking off with enormous response because it is influencing an energetic and secure avenue for the trading in Malaysia. Previously, Lelong was started based on consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transaction. And now, it is changing to a channel for business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships.

However, a lot of distributors have started to realize the use of auction system power. Now, they are using Lelong.com.my to trade and expand their businesses.


Lelong is providing many products and services to the public such as book, comics, watches, pens, clothing, accessories, begs, clocks and others. All these products are auctioned by the complete picture and state with prices.

Additionally, Lelong provides a search engine to make it convenience to the consumers. It is able to fulfill the consumers' need by typing the keywords.


Moreover, Lelong.com.my provides a double secure verification system too. It requires the users to verify their members status and telephone numbers when users wanted to trade with the items in the website. Consumers have different options to make their payment, such as online banking or by credit card which is verified via visa or master card. In order to bid and sell, Lelong has provided 2 types of verification to the consumers such as handphone verification and email verification. This can avoid the fraud and phising from occuring by giving a request code.

Sources from:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_commerce
• http://www.lelong.com.my/
• http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/help/details.asp?productid=121

E-commerce Sucess And Its Causes

Michael Dell, the founder, CEO, and chairman of Dell incorporation, he became the youngest CEO in history and transformed Dell incorporation from a traditional virtual e-commerce to a modern click-and-mortal e-commerce.

In fact, Dell incorporation is an example of e-commerce success today. In order to survive in the competitive environment, Dell had established his owned model and framework to tackle any bottleneck faced in the information age.

Dell is not the biggest innovator in the computer industry but he just wants to move one step further than all his competitors. Dell always sticks to the framework and strategies which had created by shrinking the operation cost, eliminating middleman to direct deal with customer, and study about the customer needs as opposed to his competitors instead of spending a huge amount of money in doing research and development. Since Dell was incorporated it is directed in the way of customer-centric operation by providing product customization and better customer services and needs including after sales services.

Business man acknowledges that the success of a particular corporation is depends on the surrounding people (Labor source) rather than one person itself. Thus, one of the strategies Dell emphasize is building the loyalty of the organization staffs and motivating them by granting more responsibilities and authorities to let the employees feel themselves as part of the company encompass identical interest in achieving organization goal.

Besides, Dell adopts just-in-time basis in managing his inventory in order to prevent inventory overload. With the internet conveniency, Dell is able to connect with suppliers and customers without using phone calls which are high in cost. Obviously, the finished good inventories are curtailed tremendously. Dell does not aim to be perfect however he is much more concern about the changing of the business trend and how to effectively adapt to the changing environment to become more flexible. And this is how DELL become a well-known brand in global aspect as well as computer industry.



Sources from:

• http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/speeches/msd/1999_11_01_msd_economy.pdf
• http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070131_658871.htm?campaign_id=msnbc_dell
• http://www.inc.com/articles/1999/09/15567.html
• http://news.cnet.com/2100-1014_3-5170114.html
• http://ect5.blogspot.com/2009/06/example-of-e-commerce-success-and-its.html

Review on Internet Security on ecommerze.blogspot.com

New Spamming Tactics

In the post, spamming is defined as the flooding of the electronic mail systems with "junk e-mail". The writer discussed about the new tactics of spamming which are the PDF spam, Piggyback spam, and Greeting Card spam. The post continues on to explain what are these kind of spams and includes solutions for them.

Well, we in E-commerce Gazette also give a thumbs up to this post as we ourselves find spam to be very problematic as well.

Every now and then, we do receive emails such as the PDF spam, and without any knowledge, we download the file, and our computers get infected by sypwares, trojans, and viruses as well.

So, how are you going to eliminate the viruses after infected by it?

What you need to do is just by following the Do's and Don'ts to prevent it.

Don't:

Do not click any link in the spam mail and never ever reply them.

You might not know whether the mail is from spammer, but for sure, if the mail was sent by a stranger, do not click any link in the mail, and do not reply them, because this will add the spammers' credibility on the existence of you.

Do not forward e-mails from strangers to your friends and family.

Familiar with kind of sentence "Please send this mail to 30 people and your love one will appear in 5 days"? This is the best way for spammer to harvest e-mail addresses.

Do not use your e-mail address as your name in chat rooms.

This will be the convenient way for the spammers to get your e-mail address easily.

Do:

Do make your e-mail address be more complicated.

For example, "emay1988@hotmail.com" will obviously tell the spammers about my identity. Instead, you should make your mail address to be more complicated and not easily be identified such as tem252@hotmail.com.

Do preview messages before click them.

Outlook is a software that provide you a preview mode which allows you to peek the contents before you open it. It is easy, just select the preview pane by clicking the view menu. For more information, you can click this.

Do ensure you have set the privacy setting.

By doing so, you may prevent from receiving marketing from other sites in your AOL and Yahoo profiles. Please do ensure that the webmaster will not sell your email address.

(The solutions are provided by TechSoup Technology Analyst Kevin Lo in November, 2007)


Other recommendations:

Blog Spam

It is a form of spamdexing [1], where spam appears in blogs, especially in the comment box. Spammers will post some random comments on it automatically which may contain some commercial services promotion.

The solution for this is by installing "Askimet" plugin. This benefit is most appropriately applied in Wordpress.

Spam Blocker

According to our research, there are two types of spam blocker that are found to be effective which give excellent results.

1. Cloudmark Desktop

This software is made specially for junk and phishing solution. However, Couldmark Desktop is only available to Outlook, Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird on windows. [2] One of the real strength of Cloudmark is that it will never delete the genuine e-mail by classifying it as a spam. According to Peter Solomon, the user of Couldmark, the system is able to block 50 or more spam messages within a minute. [3]

2. MailWasher

MailWasher is a spam filter software, where it helps you to remove the spam in your e-mail or from your e-mail server before you download it to your computer. That's mean, you download file from e-mail which is free from spamware, and it allows faster speed in downloading.

Sources from:

[1] Spam in blogs (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_in_blogs
[2] Richard. G. (2008). Spam Blockers: The Best Products for Home Use. Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-antispam.htm
[3] Couldmark Desktop - It just works (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/

Mobile Payment Systems In Malaysia:Its Potential and Consumers' Adoption Strategies

Nowadays, there is is a marvelous potential for mobile telecommunication networks because it become a significant electronic payment way in Malaysia. This is because, 88% of Malaysian are subscribing to mobile phone services.

Mobile payment system is a system that collects money from consumer through his or her mobile phone, smart phone, personal digital assistance (PDA), wireless tablets and any other devices that can connect to mobile telecommunication network. It make it possible for payment to be made.

E-purse application includes credit cards, ATM cards and debit cards which is embedded in My Kad. However, it is one of the card payments possibilities in Malaysia. Therefore, mobile money plays a significant role in mobile payment system because it helps users to reduce the bottlenecks that created by cash, check and credit cards. It also provides users a convenience function which is cash-free and card-free shopping as well as make it an out-of-the-way payment.

There are 2 ways of mobile payment.

1. Premium SMS
2. Mobile Web Payments (WAP)

Premium SMS is a based transactional payment which required registered customers send his or her payment through a SMS text message that indicates his or her registered 6 digits security code to merchant's mobile phone number. Or, they can use their bank accounts to make their payments as they purchase goods and services at anytime. If consumers made payment via SMS, a premium charge will apply to their phone bill. Consumers will get SMS instructuons to purchase products, can check balances and last transactions. By using premium SMS, they even can top up consumers' Money Mobile Wallet. Contrary to mobile web payments which only allow consumers to make their payment by using mobile phone connect to web pages.

Potential of Mobile Payment:

Cost
Mobile payment method would not less cost than existing payment merchanism. However, the only way to solve the mobile payment is to compete with other modes of payment in term of cash and convenience.

Speed
Mobile payment must be performed to acceptable speeds.

Cross border payments
The mobile payment should be accepted globally and world wide.

Security, privacy and trust
There must be a trust between consumers and the mobile payment application. They should assure the consumers that their information will not be misused or disclosed.

Interoperability
The evolution should be based on standards and open technologies. It must be confirm that it permits for an implemented system to interact with other systems.

Simplicity and usability
User friendly is the key point for the mobile payment application to deal with the consumers. However, consumers must be able to personalize the application that suit the convenience and request.

Universality
The transactions provided by mobile payment service is from one consumer to other consumer, from business to consumers or from business to business. Therefore, it must be universality for each users. Thus, the coverage is including domestic, regional and global environments. Hence, they payment must make either in the low value micro-payment or high value macro-payment.

Consumers' adoption strategies:

Credit card based mobile payment
According to the credit card based mobile payment model, the customers' mobile phone number is linked by the credit card number because when customers make a mobile payment transaction with a merchanct, then the credit card will be charged and the amount will be automatically credited in the merchanct account.

Bank account based mobile payment
There is a win-win solution for the banks and telecommunication if they both co-operate to provide a mobile payment solution. The reason is that customer's mobile phone number is linked by the bank account. So, when they make the transaction through a merchant, it will be automatically debited the customer's bank account and the amount of payment will be credited to the merchant account.

Complexity
A low adoption of variety of payment systems includes smart cards and mobile banking will lead to complixity and usability problem.

Compatibility
The stability between an innovation and the values, experience, and needs of potential adopters will be captured by the compatibility.




Sources from:

• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/techade/pdfs/presentations/linlor.pdf
• http://www.venturewoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/mobile-payment-systems-and-services.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Payment_Services_Association
• http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/Mobile_Commerce_OnTheGo.php
• http://lifeofecom.blogspot.com/2009/02/mobile-payment-systems-in-malaysia-its_15.html

The threats of online security

One of the biggest challenges on the Internet today is the online security threats. This is because of the internet attacks are increasing in number and complexity, therefore, everyone will get the risk when online. Besides that, every person who owns a computer with internet connection is competent to train themselves with ‘hacking’ knowledge by making a number of researches online. Moreover, Internet is also providing the opportunities for users to share the knowledge without filtering the content. However, everybody can learn the skills that may endanger online security through internet as raise the online security risk.

Since users are rely on computers to create, manage and store important information, thus, users need to know that computer security is actually playing the most important role in protecting their data from misuse, damage, steal and loss. Consequently, the best way that user can do is to use security software and hardware such as firewalls and authentication servers to protect their computer and personal information as they get on the Internet.

In addition, the reason of user need to learn how to protect their computer is because of everyday there will be new viruses and security threats launched all over the Internet, which means user need programs that can be updated continuously and don’t just only focus on a specific type problem.

The followings are some of the potential online security threats that can be found.


1.Instant messaging

It is a general enough means of communication tool and it also a way to attack one’s system by hackers. However, user need to learn how to configure the instant messaging services correctly so that user can have comprehensive control over any file transfer that can take place by the way of instant messaging can easily prevent this.


2.Spyware Attacks

The most common online security threat faced by Internet users is spyware attacks. This is because spyware attacks are a computer program which is designed to embezzle other user’s information and data. In general, spyware attack is software that needs to be installed in one’s computer without his/her realization. Therefore, after the complete installation of the software into the computer, it will automatically send user’s personal information such as documents, passwords, credit card numbers, bank accounts and other private information to another person.

Those familiar spyware are Trojan Horses, Key Loggers, Dialers and Adware Programs. However, user need to install trusted anti spyware programs to protect user’s computer from spyware. Besides that, one of advice for those users is don’t simply download software that never ever heard of as well as stick the name that you know.

3.File sharing applications

Nowadays, most of computer users are used file sharing applications to share files. This is because the easy way to share files between computer users is peer to peer file sharing. The information can be shared is because it is use a network to link the computers to one another. But there is a potential problem which is let the hackers easy to take this chance to access and even download files from any computer on the network. So that, most of expert advice user that it basically is not a good idea by using peer to peer program to share files.

4. Password Protection
Passwords are definitely a huge part of your online security. You'll discover that approximately each website that you visit is deal with online transactions, emailing, and shopping use passwords to validate who you are. Thus, it indicates that each user not only requires choosing a password and the password must not so easily to figure out. Furthermore, user shouldn’t share it with other else and must keep it as safely and securely. Consequently, users are advice not to use the similar password for all of accounts and try to come up with a password that contains letters, numbers, and special characters.

5. Web servers and services

A lot of default HTTP web servers able to expose visitors every time when they log on to these websites is because of there are many patches have been liberated over the previously years. However user need to confirm that all the patches are up-to-date and didn’t use the default configuration or application. This is because of these vulnerabilities may lead to denial-of-service attacks and other types of threats.

6. Mail client
Most of the hackers are use email to spread overwhelming viruses and worms to destroy user’s computer system. This is because all those viruses and worms will create multiple files and affect the user’s computer run slowly. These viruses and worms will include into the attachments of emails. However, this is can be prevented and limited by configuring those mail servers correctly so that user can block those doubtful attachments or files.

In order to protect the system, there are some ways that can deal with the threat of security online.

1. Firewalls

Install the firewalls are a protective barriers between user’s computer and underlying harmful attacks by hackers or offensive websites. Moreover, firewalls also can prevent the intrusion by restricting the network traffic passing through it and denies or allows passage based on a set of rules.

2. Anti-virus software

However install anti-virus software is one of the way to protect computer by reduce computer viruses and other malicious code that come through email and other else. Therefore, good anti-virus software will automatically update itself on a regular basis and they can identify the new threats on the Internet.

3. Get the latest security updates and patches

Users must keep the security and system patches up-to-date because there will have a helpful information about vulnerabilities in programs and how to find the fixes. In additional, user must turn on window’s automatic-update function to get Microsoft’s regular security patches.

4. Read the password advice

Carefully read the password advice and keep them safe because passwords are the key to user’s online account information.

5. Honey pots

It is an intentionally or unintentionally left vulnerable to attacks user’s computer by crackers. Therefore, user need pay more attention to the messages that pop up on the screen from the Window’s, especially in the new Vista operating system. Thus, user is advice to don’t click on any unknown links in the social network messages from unknown user.

As a conclusion, risk uncovered by computer users is rising as the rising developed technology. So that, safeguard must always develop up to date to improve the defenses against online security threats. Hence, users must be learn about the important damages and loss caused by imposing security threat. In addition, user needs to have a good backup method to keep their data and files.

Sources from:

• http://utar-ecommerce.blogspot.com/2008/06/threat-of-online-security.html
• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-primary-online-security-threats.htm
• http://www.hsbc.com/1/2/online-security
• http://www.tech-faq.com/online-security-threats.shtml