I miss the plethora of online shopping opportunities I enjoyed in the US - Canada has nowhere near the options, and most US online stores won't ship to Canada or if they do, the shipping and potential brokerage and taxes can be a real killer. I sent a package back that UPS wanted $29 in BROKERAGE for - it was software that was only worth $100, and the brokerage wiped out all savings from buying it from the US.
One thing to remember - your CC number can be stolen in any venue; restaurants, gas stations, stores - all it takes is a dishonest employee. If they note the security number AND have your name and perhaps your phone number, it's pretty simple to get the billing address if you've got a listed phone number. Much fraudulent use of credit cards happens online because it's easy to do - and some companies will not check with the purchaser who wishes to ship to a third party address (the usual method of shopping using a stolen cc number). The smart companies do, of course, but too many don't. A lot of people think that it's online shopping that puts them at risk - when in fact it's simply using a credit card. I've had my cc used fraudulently twice - and the first time didn't involve the internet at all, but a gas station I'd stopped at 6 months earlier. Someone who worked there lifted the number and used it twice (at the same gas station and at a restaurant) and the second time, the fraud was perpetrated by a company I'd ordered checks from online for an organization for which I was treasurer. I was called by the online retailer who noticed that the billing address given by the thief wasn't correct - he'd given the address of the organization, rather than my address. I knew darn well who the guilty party was, but the police are hopeless at following up on these cases unless they involve a great deal of money. In the second case, the police in NYC (where the items the thief had ordered were to be delivered) informed me that they already had a watch on the Mailboxes Etc. outlet that was receiving the packages and that the Russian mafia were involved. The guy I spoke to in accounting at the check-printing company had a Russian name and a very strong Russian accent, and of course, denied any involvement of his company in my cc number theft, even though the particular combination of information given with the fraudulent orders could ONLY have originated there. You'd think that would make it pretty easy to nail them - the breadcrumb trail led right to their door. Who knows if they were ever caught - though the check-printing company was gone within 6 months.
