>>Re: WeBestseller List?

CHRISDENNIS@delphi.com
Sat, 10 Dec 1994 13:51:45 -0800

On Dec 10, Stu Sjouwerman writes about sales of his book:
>
> It is quite exciting to see e-mail messages coming in your inbasket
> telling you that some one has authorized a debit of their credit card. The
>First Virtual system is definitely up & running, and allows infopreneurs to
>make money that gets put on their bank account automatically.

Stu,

All I can say is to read today's post from Nick Szabo and my <corrected>
post about non-digital payment systems such as NetCash, First Virtual and
others. Hear ye, hear ye, loud and clear: These systems *do not* offer much
security at all, and if I were an infopreneur, I would stay *completely
away* from them.

Why do you use this as a payment method in the first place? You are taking a
big risk, my friend, in being a guinea pig for a system that hasn't been
given a "real world" test yet. As a businessperson myself, I cannot think of
anything more foolish than playing games with, of all things, money. Unless
you have tons of it, of course!

You're taking a chance that a hacker may want to break into your account
just for fun. For a really big kick, he may even want to transfer funds. Who
knows what else can happen? Until the technology evolves at least one more
generation, stand clear. Besides, there's just no reason to use systems like
FV's in the first place: just get your own merchant account and a
fulfillment firm that takes orders 24 hrs a day via an 800 number.
Chrisfuscious <g> say: Never trust your money to start-up payment-processing
service. Bad decision can return to slap you in face.

-CJD-
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Christopher J. Dennis *** Innkeeper/ CyberBizman! *** St. Francisville, LA
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