Skip to content
benjf.com
benjf.com

  • Home
  • About
  • ✞ Faith
  • Opinion
    • Politics
    • Health
    • Movies
    • Music
    • ☺ For Fun
    • Random Awesomeness
  • Technology
    • Desktop
    • Android
    • ✉ Email
    • Privacy
    • Programming
      • HTML
      • CSS
      • Javascript
        • jQuery
      • PHP
      • SQL
        • SQL Server
      • Powershell
      • MS Access
      • WordPress
  • Productivity
benjf.com

Protecting Your Debit/Credit Card Numbers

Writer #1, 2024-08-142024-08-14

Your debit card number is given out frequently if you regularly shop online. Every time you type it into a website you are trusting that they will handle your information properly and yet you have no way to know that they are doing so. Sooner or later, everyone seems to end up with mysterious charges on their bank account and they have no idea how their information was stolen.

The best way to prevent these events is to protect your privacy with privacy.com.

The idea is simple. Only privacy.com has your real debit card or credit card number. Whenever you want to make a purchase online, rather than handing out your actual card numbers, you get a masked card number from privacy.com. The masked card number automatically maps to your true card number without ever exposing it to the online merchant. The charge goes through just as seamlessly as usual and your privacy is protected.

You might be thinking “can’t someone just steal your masked card number?” Well, not really. Once a masked number is used for any particular online merchant, it can never be used for any other merchant. So, if they steal it from apple.com and try to use it on amazon.com, it will be declined (and you’ll get an email to let you know it was declined). So, right off the bat, a stolen number’s usability is reduced by 99.99% (probably more, but let’s keep it simple). So, a thief would have to steal it and use it on the exact merchant they stole it from.

But the protection goes beyond that. On every masked number you are able to set limits on how much can be charged per month, per year, per transaction, or total.

Additionally, you can pause the card number so it is unusable entirely, until you un-pause it. Or, you can close it, rendering it unusable forever.

One of my favorite uses for masked card numbers is for free trials. How many times does a “free trial” require you to give out your credit card to get the trial? All the time, right? With privacy.com, simply generate a new masked number, set a $1 limit, and give them the masked number. Once you sign up, pause the masked card, and enjoy your free trial. Then, when you forget to cancel after the trial, they will try to charge you but the charge will be declined. If you want to continue beyond the free trial, simply un-pause the card, increase the limit to an appropriate amount needed for that transaction, and then it will start working.

What about returns or refunds? They are no problem at all. Returns and refunds happen just like usual. The refunds route through the masked number and get credited back to your bank account just as quickly and easily as you’re used to.

You are limited to 12 new card numbers per month, but remember, a card can be used repeatedly after it is created. This is only a monthly limit to the number of unique masked card numbers that can be generated.

Masked card numbers are only good for online purchases, so they cannot be used in stores.

Privacy.com can be linked up with 1password, so if you are a 1password user then you can generate new card numbers from your 1password app.

You also have the option to mask your transactions on your bank statements. So, maybe you purchased something from Amazon, but your bank statement can show “NSA Giftshop” instead of Amazon. This is only an option. If you don’t activate that option then your bank statements will reflect the actual merchant, as usual.

You can sign up here using my referral link: https://app.privacy.com/join/PNZUX

When you sign up with that referral link, you’ll get $5 to spend anywhere online, and I’ll get a $5 credit too. So, we’ll both get paid exactly the same.

Just Info Privacy 1passwordidentity theftonline privacyprivacy.com

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Love Never Fails
  • FIXED! Left Audio Only on OBS with Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD
  • Gnome Alt+Tab Window Switching; How to ungroup the windows
  • Pay or else
  • 1Password App Integration With Browser Extension on Kubuntu (or Debian Linux)

Recent Comments

  1. LOL on Major Federal Budget Cuts – do the math
  2. Writer #1 on Online Privacy In The United States
  3. More About Sortable Dates; Plus AutoHotKey Scripts! – benjf.com on Date/Time Formatting Can Unite The World
  4. AutoHotKey Tips – benjf.com on Date/Time Formatting Can Unite The World
  5. Kevin on Moving FDLAUNCHERLOG in SQL Server

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • May 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009

Categories

  • Ai
  • Android
  • C#
  • CSS
  • Desktop
  • EMail
  • Faith
  • For Fun
  • Health
  • HTML
  • Javascript
  • jQuery
  • Just Info
  • Linux
  • Movies
  • MS Access
  • Music
  • Opinion
  • PHP
  • Politics
  • Powershell
  • Privacy
  • Productivity
  • Programming
  • Random Awesomeness
  • Self Hosting
  • SQL
  • SQL Server
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • WordPress
©2025 benjf.com | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes