Is safe online banking possible? sandbox?

mike wrote:

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?
...
I'm paranoid about online banking.
For that, I boot a live linux CD that never goes anywhere but my bank.
It gives me a sense of security, but it's annoying.

Why don't you just install the Linux and use it instead? You'd have a
far,
far less chance of being compromised by malware, keyloggers, hackers,
and all of that Windows-related stuff.

That's wrong on so many levels.
First problem is that linux can't do some of the stuff I REQUIRE. And
the stuff it does do requires a major change in mindset and user
interface.

Yeah, that is pretty much the same things you say when you come to the
Linux newsgroups to bash that operating system.

Good luck with your banking.

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high

"...winston‫" wrote:
Every time I attempt to withdraw cash the alarm goes off and someone
calls my phone asking for a special code word. For some reason they
don't like my 'four-letter-word' response.

Are you allowed to change the special code word, for instance to
something with four letters?

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On 2015-04-10, Char Jackson wrote:
I have no problem with people who still use cash. Sure, I look on in
amusement, but it's only amusement.

Cash is freedom and privacy. It's nobody's business how I spend my money.
I don't care to leave an electronic trail for every purchase to be looked
over and analyzed/scrutinized by whoever has access to that data.

I have no problem with people who use credit cards. Sure, I look on in
amusement, but it's only amusement.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 22:43:02 -0700, "...winston?"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:

Oh, wait, what year is this? The last time I went to a bank to do my banking
was approximately 1984. ;-)


I think that was the last time for Mr. Smith, Julia, O'Brien and Mr.
Charrington too.


I had to do a Google search to find out to what the reference was.
I've read "1984" three or four times, but not recently, and I had
completely forgotten the names.

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 17:01:22 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 14:07:16 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 11:38:13 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

In one sense, you can't avoid online banking. Not in the sense you
mean, but in this sense: when, for instance, you swipe a credit card at
a business, the transaction (usually) involves lots of network activity.

In the old days, if you swiped a credit card (or anything else) and
got caught, they would put you in jail! g

I was commenting on that very ambiguity just a few days ago, so I was
ready for you :-)


LOL!

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:26:32 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:


BofA has a program called Shopsafe

https://www.bankofamerica.com/privac...ds/shopsafe.go

I would personally never recommend BofA to anyone, but they do have the service.


Why? What do you have against BofA?

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 15:40:53 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 08:22:43 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:26:32 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:


BofA has a program called Shopsafe

https://www.bankofamerica.com/privac...ds/shopsafe.go

I would personally never recommend BofA to anyone, but they do have the service.


Why? What do you have against BofA?

My opinion, based upon personal and business experience is, they are one of the
worst run, most mercenary banks in the USA. Mind you, there are many poorly run
banks but B of A's focus on fee based revenue in their retail sector makes them
a very unappealing financial institution, from my perspective.

I will not go into specifics as I consider my personal and business financial
dealings to be private. I will say, I have had far better experiences dealing
with smaller banks and credit unions such as USAA, Navy Federal, Union Bank,
etc.


OK, thanks, but your experience with them is exactly the opposite of
mine.

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:46:06 +0000 (UTC)
"Beauregard T. Shagnasty" wrote:

mike wrote:

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?
...
I'm paranoid about online banking.
For that, I boot a live linux CD that never goes anywhere but my
bank. It gives me a sense of security, but it's annoying.

Why don't you just install the Linux and use it instead? You'd
have a far,
far less chance of being compromised by malware, keyloggers,
hackers, and all of that Windows-related stuff.

That's wrong on so many levels.
First problem is that linux can't do some of the stuff I REQUIRE.
And the stuff it does do requires a major change in mindset and user
interface.

Yeah, that is pretty much the same things you say when you come to
the Linux newsgroups to bash that operating system.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

--
Wildman GNU/Linux user #557453
The cow died so I don't need your bull!

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 03:56:07 -0700, "...winston‫" wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 04:08:07 -0400, Paul wrote:

I fondly remember when the bank teller told me
about their "new online banking option".

And how it was protected with a *three digit pin*.
That was their password scheme at the time.

I don't have a very good poker face, and I hope
I didn't "scowl" at the teller in too obvious
a fashion :-)

As you might guess from that, I wouldn't
be caught dead doing online banking.

It's 2015 now. My password is maybe a dozen characters, not all of them
letters.

My ATM PIN is all of 4 digits, ten times more secure than what you
mentioned. Oh boy.


I always get my ATM and Home Security Pins mixed up.

Every time I attempt to withdraw cash the alarm goes off and someone
calls my phone asking for a special code word. For some reason they
don't like my 'four-letter-word' response.

Somehow, the four-letter-word response seems appropriate in the
circumstance :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:14:53 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 03:16:27 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2015-04-09, Char Jackson wrote:
The same folks who are afraid to bank online will hand their credit card to
a teenager at a restaurant and watch him walk away with it.

Nope. I pay cash at restaurants, as I do for all purchases at
"brick and mortar" stores.

I have no problem with people who still use cash. Sure, I look on in
amusement, but it's only amusement. The people who really annoy me,
especially when the lines are long, are the folks who dig around and
eventually produce a checkbook. Five minutes later (exaggerating) they hand
a check to the cashier. Meanwhile, I'm looking around for a shorter line.

Are you sure that you're exaggerating?

Been there, hated that...

Another favorite of mine is the person who takes that same five minutes
to produce his iPhone or Android phone, search around for the app, touch
some icon, swear, touch another icon, enter a PIN, and finally pay for
his $2 coffee.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:24:22 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 17:05:46 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 17:33:14 -0400, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Per Gene E. Bloch:
... for instance, you swipe a credit card at
a business, the transaction (usually) involves lots of network activity.

Anyway, in both respects, you can't be sure of absolute safety, sadly.

Yeah, but the $50 liability limit on credit cards comes pretty close....

I've been the victim of fraud more than a few times in the last two years
and my credit card providers have never mentioned the $50 fraud limit. I'm
aware of it and I always expect them to say something, but they don't. They
just skip right over that and tell me they're sending a new card.

I have a friend who has gotten several new cards in the last couple of
years. Her bank notices problems and reissues the card with a new
number.

For both 2013 and 2014, I've traveled 6 days a week for 50 out of 52 weeks,
so there's been a lot of opportunity for fraud. I'm normally unaware until
the credit card provider calls me, but I can honestly say I had a gut
feeling in a small restaurant in the south suburbs of Houston, Texas, last
year. The guy looked and acted shady, so it was no big surprise when my CC
provider said someone had tried to purchase $3700+ worth of merchandise at
Nordstom's which got declined, then $2800+ at Best Buy which was also
declined, and finally $478+ at World Market, also declined. IMO, the CC
providers do an excellent job of recognizing suspicious card activity these
days.

Very encouraging, IMO.

I don't know what the problems were (I don't think she does either).

I have a friend who got a call at her home in Sunnyvale, CA, asking her
if she had just bought an airline ticket in Norway. She said no.

I've been there in a very similar way. :-)

BTW, reading this post, I realize that I was very sloppy in what I
wrote.

The call she got was from her credit card company, and led to a
replacement card being issued...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:52:51 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:24:22 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 17:05:46 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I have a friend who got a call at her home in Sunnyvale, CA, asking her
if she had just bought an airline ticket in Norway. She said no.

I've been there in a very similar way. :-)

BTW, reading this post, I realize that I was very sloppy in what I
wrote.

The call she got was from her credit card company, and led to a
replacement card being issued...

No worries. I read it that way.

--

Char Jackson

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:46:16 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:14:53 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 03:16:27 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2015-04-09, Char Jackson wrote:
The same folks who are afraid to bank online will hand their credit card to
a teenager at a restaurant and watch him walk away with it.

Nope. I pay cash at restaurants, as I do for all purchases at
"brick and mortar" stores.

I have no problem with people who still use cash. Sure, I look on in
amusement, but it's only amusement. The people who really annoy me,
especially when the lines are long, are the folks who dig around and
eventually produce a checkbook. Five minutes later (exaggerating) they hand
a check to the cashier. Meanwhile, I'm looking around for a shorter line.

Are you sure that you're exaggerating?

I once saw a lady pull a puppy out of her purse when she was having trouble
finding her checkbook. Another time, a young lady (I was young then, too)
burst into tears after searching for some way to pay for her baby's diapers
and food. Apparently, she'd forgotten both her wallet and her checkbook, so
in the spirit of doing something nice for once in my life, I paid her bill
and a couple of weeks later she sent me a check.

Been there, hated that...

Another favorite of mine is the person who takes that same five minutes
to produce his iPhone or Android phone, search around for the app, touch
some icon, swear, touch another icon, enter a PIN, and finally pay for
his $2 coffee.

I'm seeing that more and more when people are being asked to produce their
airline boarding pass. Fumble for the phone, exit Facebook, launch the
airline app, navigate to current trip, tap the boarding pass icon, and if
you did it right, maybe the boarding pass shows up. When it's my turn, I
sail through because while I'm as tech savvy as the next guy, I know I can
do it faster with the tried and true paper version.

--

Char Jackson

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 09:45:40 -0400, Wolf K wrote:

On 2015-04-10 2:29 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 17:12:30 -0400, Wolf K wrote:

On 2015-04-09 5:01 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Thu, 09 Apr 2015 14:12:11 -0400,
wrote:


Given the protections inerrant in credit cards, I can't see why people
use debit cards - unless it's the exposure to risk under most credit
card vendors' business models, which is around the extremely heavy
penalties if/when somebody makes a payment error.


I never make payment errors, since I have all my credit cards set up
for automatic payment. And my payment is always in full, so I never
pay any interest. They are called "credit" cards, but I don't really
treat them as such. I never spend more on them than I can afford to
spend. [etc]

In Texas, December 2013, I could not use credit cards at the pumps,
debit only.

I'm not aware of any gas stations in Texas that don't accept credit cards,
but you might simply be saying that they didn't accept YOUR credit card.
Perhaps it wasn't a mainstream card such as Visa or MC?

Visa, issued by a Canadian bank.

All I can guess is that they had a problem with the part about being issued
by a foreign bank, but please don't feel singled out. In my extensive
dealings with Texans, I get the feeling that anyone who wasn't born in Texas
is considered to be a foreigner to some extent.

--

Char Jackson

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:48:26 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:


I'm seeing that more and more when people are being asked to produce their
airline boarding pass. Fumble for the phone, exit Facebook, launch the
airline app, navigate to current trip, tap the boarding pass icon, and if
you did it right, maybe the boarding pass shows up. When it's my turn, I
sail through because while I'm as tech savvy as the next guy, I know I can
do it faster with the tried and true paper version.


I'm with you entirely. I don't have a smart phone, but even if I did,
I wouldn't use it for this. Besides all the things you mention, you
never know when your battery has run down or something else is wrong
with the phone.