THUMBS UP: Online Card Protection

Solution:

Even though the incidence ofonline credit card fraud is fairly low,and you're on the hook for only thefirst $50 of any phony transaction,giving out your credit card numberover the Internet may make yousquirm. Do your buying witha 1-time credit card number that'slinked to your account but getstrashed after it's been used. That way,even if the bad guys latch on to thecard number, they can't use it to rackup fraudulent purchases that end upon your card. Most of the major creditcard issuers offer this service,including MBNA America (www.mbnashopsafe.com), Discover Card(www2.discovercard.com/deskshop),and American Express (www.americanexpress.com).