Whatever happened to SET, and E-sales experience (Score 2)

Visa and MC were supposed to provide the SET protocol to

1. lower costs to merchants: the 'discount' rate for Mail Order/Telephone Order sales is typically 1% or more over a brick 'n' mortar store. SET is supposed to eliminate that.
2. increase security for both the customer and the card issuer (not the merchant - heh)

This was done using a digital certificate for each customer, vetted by the bank. The e-store never gets the credit card number, just various confirmation numbers from the bank, and credit in their account.

Well, it's been several years, and SET still isn't implemented at any major e-commerce site that I know of. The costs SET-compliant software are huge.

I wouldn't shop at any place that is that much of a hassle to order from. Unless I'm assured of a great deal ahead of time, I won't shop from places that (a) require a log-in (esp. with credit card) before I can put the first item in the cart, or (b) aren't up-front with the shipping costs.

Hey - Toys-R-Expensive^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hUs doesn't even use a secure server!

My wife runs a small children's book store on the web, and fraud really hasn't been a problem. We've never had a customer complain about theft, we've never gotten stiffed for a bill, and the couple of customers who tried to reverse a charge after receiving legit merchandise were re-credited to us -- a hassle, but we won.

We did get a pair of orders one day both shipping to the same city in Hungary using US cards. This raised some virtual hackles, and when the customers didn't respond to e-mail, we canceled the order and reported them to the credit card company [hey - where's our reward?].

Admittedly, the major fraud risks are for large ticket items, or direct-download items, from software to smut, none of which we work with (I think the biggest ticket items are under $200 for hardback sets of The Chronicles of Narnia or some such).

J