A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

Recently I have review on a post on e-Tailing from My E-Commerce blog, http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing. Now I would like to share my opinion with you.

In my mind, the online sales goods consumers purchased should be something related to computer like hardware and software. I think most of the people will think so too. However, from the blog, I found that, there is a change in 2006 showing that consumers spent more on clothes rather than computers.

It is surprisingly for me to know that, the spending for apparel, accessories and footwear sales hit US$18.3 (RM64) billion as compare to US$17.2 (RM60) billion for computers. This result is reported by Shop.org. There is a different of US$1.1(RM4) billion. In my opinion, this is because after sales service is more important for computer compare to clothes. Consumers will prefer purchases computer in physical market rather than by online transaction. Besides, the quality of online product is suspicion. Computer is much more expensive compare to clothes. If there is default in online product and cannot be exchange, consumers would not like to buy things which are expensive.

The online travel expenses is US$73.4 billion of the online transactions, topping the e-tailing market. This shows that, many people spend on online traveling. In my opinion, this is because online traveling may have discount compare to physical market. Traveling company try to avoid agent fees which need in physical market to reduce cost. This will bring more profit for the traveling company. For consumers, they also benefit from discount given online.

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Bankruptcy is a very real possibility for many people these days. Credit card debt is the one of the factor that cause most of the people suffered. It is because credit card is convenience to them buying without carry cash around. Many people lack the knowledge of how to handle credit and have attitudes that suggest that debt is acceptable. Other than that, Poor planning, overspending, lack of savings, high-interest loans also will lead to owing too much of credit card debt.

Following are 4 steps to prevent credit card debt.

Step 1: create a budget. A clear budget that includes all the monthly bill entertainment, food will prevent from over spending.

Step 2: maintain clear financial records and a regular payment schedule. When you pay your bills on time and you able to determine hoe much you have to spend for the month ahead.

Step 3: only use credit when you can pay it off within a few months. The longer it takes you to pay off the debt, the more interest that debt will incur and the more you will end up paying.

Step 4: Shred or tear up credit card applications that come to you in the mail. Just because you get the application doesn't mean you need or want the card. Destroying the application will prevent you from using it and protect you from potential identity thieves

Electronic Currency – e-gold

e-gold, operational since 1996, is an electronic currency issued by e-gold Ltd, a Nevis corporation. It is 100% backed by gold bullion, other e-metals also had issued, e-silver, e-platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by silver, platinum and palladium respectively.

e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. It is accounted by weight of metal, not any national currency unit. As weight units have a precise, invariable, internationally recognized definition, and have a long history of monetary use around the world. Thus, e-gold is ideally suited for international transactions. Nowadays, e-gold is used in e-commerce, business-to-business payments, person-to-person payments, payroll, bill payments, charitable donations and other aspects.

There are some benefits for using e-gold. It is low cost of transaction fee on all transactions between e-gold customers, which the maximum fee for receiving payment is 50 cents. It costs nothing to open an e-gold account and there is no minimum balance requirement.
e-gold is borderless and it may be Spent to any other e-gold account anywhere in the world via the e-gold shopping cart interface, the e-gold Account Manager, or web enabled mobile phone.
e-gold payments clear instantaneously with no chargeback risk, no matter how large the payment or how far apart the Spender and Recipient. In addition, e-gold is 100% backed by gold bullion, it minimizes exchange risk and make the payments more safety and convenient.

There also has extraordinary governance and security. All transactions are on-line with access requiring account number, passphrase, Turing number, and IP address confirmation. Transactions also settled immediately, records are maintained on dedicted servers, data integrity is highly controlled, and all hardware and software has a strong backup and continuity program.

For more detailed information about e-gold, please visit http://www.e-gold.com/

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Customers' Adoption Strategies

Mobile payment is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device. Mobile payment system characterized themselves by their flexibility of application possibilities (mobile commerce), high convenience (wallet function), and high diversity with account methods, access methods, and so forth.

With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, there are huge opportunities to speed the development of mobile payment as well as to provide an effective method of delivering financial services even in the remote areas. In recent years, various mobile banking and payment initiatives have been launched. This however, has yet to achieve widespread acceptance. To date, there are only 1.8% of the 25 million subscribed for mobile payment service in the country. There is, therefore, a significant untapped and potentially lucrative market for mobile payment and banking services.

Mobile Money (MM Wallet) is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It's money in your mobile. You can make payment to anyone, at anytime, from anywhere by using a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN via SMS. It is the next generation of money. It's like what mobile phone brings to the world of fixed line phone. It is safe, secure and convenient.

Finally, to encourage consumers to adopt the m-payment, it is hoped that the market participants will be able to offer new mobile payment services that opens up new markets for mobile service providers and payment operators, offer the convenience at reasonable costs and thus deliver the cost savings and efficiency gains that consumers seek. In addition, for mobile payment system to succeed, it is needed to strengthen consumer confidence in the safety, security and reliability of mobile networks as a means for consumers to access financial services.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

1. Keep our personal and sensitive data off your computer- Nowadays, there are many network threats that hack into our computer. We might not know when our computer is being infected by the virus or spyware program; therefore, we must try our best to keep our personal and sensitive data such as bank account numbers, passwords etc off from our computer. Lots of people tend to leave their computers on for long periods of time and it can be compromised at any time, so if there is no data to steal, then we have already done a lot to prevent data theft. If we really want it on our computer, then at least make sure we encrypt it using certain security program.
2. Avoid saving credit card info, etc on shopping sites- It is quite risky to save our credit card info on shopping site such as Amazon, eBay to avoid repeatedly type; someone might eventually hack into their database and downloads thousands of credit card numbers, bank account numbers, etc.
3. Only connect to secure wireless networks if you can- We must always aware of not to connect to any unknown wireless network. Connecting to non-secure wireless networks is asking for trouble. Therefore, we must make sure we connect to known wireless network instead of simply connecting to an unknown network.
4. Clear your browser’s cache after an online transaction- We must always remember not to save our password in the computer. Sometimes we will get message from our browser asking us whether we want it to automatically save your passwords, etc, click NO.
5. Make sure anti-virus and anti-spyware are installed and up-to-date- We can either buy excellent anti-virus programs like Kaspersky Anti-Virus or free programs like AVG, which is pretty good too. Either way, make sure we have something installed. However, most people usually stop there and don’t install any anti-spware programs. That’s a big mistake! Nowadays, spyware programs send our data to their creators so they can make money. Some good anti-spyware apps are Windows Defender, SpySweeper, SpywareBlaster, AdWare, and Spybot Search and Destroy.
6. Use a secure Internet browser when you are online- Firefox is considered more secure than IE and that’s what a number of sites also have tested. IE 7 has more security features than ever before, but it still has lots of holes also. Using a more secure browser can help protect against browser hijacking, etc. Anyway, most viruses are written for IE since it’s more common, so it’s more likely to be hacked.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia since 1999. It is one of the 3^rd party certification programme in Malaysia. It offer complete security solutions and leading trust services that are needed by individuals, enterprises, government, and e-commerce service providers using digital certificates, digital signatures, encryption and decryption. The vision is to enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.

The following is the certificate application processing. Upon MSC Trustgate.com’s receipt of the necessary payment and upon completion of authentication procedures required for the Certificate customer has purchased, MSC Trustgate.com will process the Certificate Application. MSC Trustgate.com will notify whether the Certificate Application is approved or rejected. If the Certificate Application is approved, MSC Trustgate.com will issue a Certificate for customer’s use in accordance with this Subscriber Agreement. The use of the Personal Identification Number (“PIN”) from MSC Trustgate.com to pick up the Certificate or otherwise installing or using the Certificate is considered your acceptance of the Certificate. After customer pick up or otherwise install the Certificate, customer must review the information in it before using it and promptly notify MSC Trustgate.com of any errors. Upon receipt of such notice, MSC Trustgate.com may revoke the Certificate and issue a corrected Certificate.

To improve customers’ trust, MSC Trustgate.com represents and warrants to customers that (i) there are no errors introduced by MSC Trustgate.com in the Certificate information as a result of MSC Trustgate.com’s failure to use reasonable care in creating the Certificate; (ii) the Certificate complies in all material respects with the MSC Trustgate.com CPS; and (iii) MSC Trustgate.com’s revocation services and use of a repository conform to the MSC Trustgate.com CPS in all material aspects.

For more detail information, please visit https://www.msctrustgate.com.

The Threat of Online Security: How Safe is Our Data?

The same Internet connection that lets you reach out and touch millions of Web servers, e-mail addresses, and also endangers your PC and the information it contains about you. It has been published that over 100 million cases of identity theft, stealing names, credit card data and other personal information from unsuspecting Internet users have taken place since 2005.

A happened of threats to confidential information due to the increase of Trojans and bot networks enabling an attacker to gain access to a victim’s computer. Attacks that obtain sensitive data stored on an infected computer can result in significant financial loss, particularly if credit card or banking information is exposed. Confidential information used in identity theft is often confiscated as a result of a data breach. Data breaches and the potential use of confidential information for identity theft can result in a loss of public confidence, legal liability, or costly litigation. Not only can compromises that result in the loss of personal data undermine customer and institutional confidence and result in costly damage to an organization’s reputation.

In this unsafe Internet world, home users can lose valuable personal data with one click to the wrong website. Sometimes, when you receive an email request an update to your payment details, and a hacker gains access to your bank account. You've probably seen your share of phishing attacks, which look like communications from your bank, PayPal, eBay, or another online account. The message may ask you to click a link that leads to a bogus Web page, complete with realistic user-name and password log-in fields, or it might ask for a credit-card number. When you take the bait, the phisher harvests your data, and either sells it to someone else, or uses it to drain your account right away.

In any case, an Internet user should protect yourself against data theft and should have some safeguard to protect your confidential information.

Symantec had publish a report about the global Internet security threat. The Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report provides a six-month update of worldwide Internet threat activity.

To review the three biggest threat in 2007, click here.