Most people are aware of the potential danger in having the wrong person get your credit card or even your credit card number. With your credit card, fraudsters can buy anything with it and charge it to your card even before you are aware it was stolen. Even with a credit card number, a fraudster can order items over the phone and charge it to your card.

There are many ways in which your credit card can be stolen or the number disclosed to third parties without your knowledge. Fraudsters are now using the internet to obtain your credit card for the same reasons as before.

Here are a couple of tips to keep your credit card number from falling into the wrong hands on the net:

• If you are buying an item online, determine if you can buy the item with cash on delivery (COD). This is especially true when you are buying an item from a business or person over the internet who you don't know. A typical example is buying goods from an online auction where the online auction merely provides a place to post items. Such sites do not verify the existence of the advertised item or the seller.

• Don't buy from someone you don't know. The internet offers a buyer a wealth of sites from which to buy items. This encourages buyers to shop around to find the cheapest price. Unfortunately, the price you might pay is the disclosure of your credit card number and non-delivery of an item.

• Buy items online from businesses you know and not from private individuals. The larger more reputable companies are not in the business of using your credit card for fraudulent purposes. Unfortunately, you cannot get that same sense of security when buying from a private individual.

• If you are going to purchase an item from an online business that you have never heard about, search our Complaint Database for prior complaints and the local Better Business Bureau.