How do you store Credit/Debit card information to prevent fraud?

We don’t store full card numbers. However, for your safety as well as ours, we use an encryption technique that allows us to see if more than one person is presenting the same card number.

The card number is encrypted and then we store just half of the resulting encrypted number. This encryption cannot be decrypted back to the card number, but it is unique. If the same card number is presented again we would get the same encrypted result and thus we will know that the same card number is being presented more than once.

We send an encrypted reference to the payment gateway for repeat payments – not the whole card number. This is tied to us so no other web site can use this encrypted reference.

We also use anti-fraud checks such as verifying your address against the card, prompting for an internet password (e.g. Verified by Visa), etc.

Your credit and debit card numbers are safe with us.  

We strongly recommend that you never write down your internet password (e.g. Verified by Visa) and that you make sure your card issuer (e.g. your bank) has your latest address details.