Security Features of MyCelticRings.Com: Highest Quality, Lowest Cost.

All Internet merchants owe it to their visitors to protect the privacy of their names, email and physical addresses, credit card, banking, social security, telephone and other personal and private numbers. Our web server and entire web site are scanned and certified every day to be "HackerSafe^®" by McAfee^®. Our certification equals or exceeds FBI standards.

Here is an article I wrote about 3 years ago. It has been widely reprinted with my permission: SecureShoppingOnline If you are not comfortable shopping on the Internet you will find value in this article; it is short and takes only about a minute or two to read.

Whenever vulnerable kinds of information are requested and used at MyCelticRings.Com our customers are always protected by our SSL security system. Our 128-bit Strong Encryption is simply the best protection on the web today.

The use of SSL 128-bit encryption causes web pages to operate a little slower than non secure pages. This is a small price to pay for the peace of mind that it affords our customers and ourselves.

To view the above linked web invoice sample you will need to use the following UserId and Passwords exactly as shown here:
UserId= invoice
Password= rings342

Q: How can I tell the difference between secure pages and pages that do not have the special security and protection described above?

There are two different places to look for evidence. The first place to look is the address. Whenever your credit card, Social Security or other vulnerable information is to be displayed and sent over the Internet you should see that the address begins with "https://" Ordinary pages begin with "http" and secure pages begin with "https" ... the added "s" means secure. An "https" page is a secure page. Note that nearly all of our pages are "ordinary" and do not need security, security is in force wherever it is needed to protect the safety of your financial information and privacy.

The second evidence can be seen by looking for the tiny "padlock" icon displayed at the bottom of your browser. In Netscape the lock will appear at the bottom left of your screen, and with Internet Explorer and AOL it will be in the bottom right area.

Examine the condition of the padlock icon. If it is in the "open" position the page is not secure, if the lock is in the "closed" position then the page is securely encrypted.

Q: How is it possible to send my credit card information by email without risk of the numbers being stolen?

A: Credit card numbers are not sent by email. Period. Your vital data is encrypted on our server when you place your order. It remains encrypted for a few seconds until we access it, decrypte it and copy it to our own secure system for processing. The encrypted data on the server is immediatly deleted as an extra measure of security. Your actual credit card numbers are never at risk of being stolen. We protect you from identity theft and other violations of your privcay when you trust us with you vulnerable private information.

There's no doubt that great deals, convenience, and choices abound online. But before you take advantage of all that the Internet has to offer, take a minute to download and read helpful safe-shopping tips. You'll learn how to be "cybersmart," and get the most from your online experience without putting yourself—or your wallet—at risk. The information is in Adobe PDF format and requires use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Don't have the reader? Get it here for FREE, it will come in very handy in the future:

Once you have downloaded the safe-shopping tips and have Acrobat Reader in your computer you will be able to read any Acrobat PDF (portable document file) when you are online or offline. It is a great convenience.

Sadly there are many individuals who do their best to steal from businesses on the Internet. Their methods are numerous, the most common are using stolen credit cards or lists of stolen credit card numbers. There are many systems that we use to protect ourselves, a few are described below. Other methods are not revealed here for security purposes. We've become expert at delivering these criminals into the hands of law enforcement along with the evidence needed for successful prosecution.

Each order is manually verified in detail by us and the credit card issuing bank. We individually investigate and verify physical addresses, shipping addresses, phone numbers, match customer names and phone records, personally speak with customers and more.

We reject all orders which we cannot verify as being legitimate and immediately refer all details of attempted fraud to law enforcement.

Some legitimate orders may seem suspicious (fraudulent) when more than one of the following "red flags" are present:

Other, more advanced techniques, including neural networks, are also effectively used to prevent the theft of our handcrafted jewelry products. We do our best to provide such scammers with a set of bracelets (handcuffs, one size fits all) that they can uncomfortably wear as they are taken to police headquarters and booked for attempted fraud. Other charges may also include interfering with Interstate commerce (Federal), conspiracy to defraud, etc. You can bet your freedom that we take fraud very seriously.

FraudScreen technology is also fully implemented at this site. There are many web based businesses that are easy targets for thieves. We are not one of them!

We subscribe to FraudScreen. The FraudScreen system uses a database of billions of pieces of information to rate the fraud risk of every credit card order that we submit for payment. A "Fraud Score" rating between 1 and 1000 is provided to us; the higher the number the greater is the risk of fraud. We refuse payment by all credit cards with high Fraud Scores. If such orders are to be accepted and processed they can only be paid by alternate methods such as personal or business checks, money orders, Bank Wire transfers or Western Union. You may review the details of the various methods of payment here: PAYMENT

A. "CCV2" is a unique number on the back of all Visa, Discover, and MasterCards. It is a 3 digit code to the far right of the signature area on the back of the card. People trying to use lists of stolen credit cards rarely have the CCV2 numbers for these cards. We check these numbers for accuracy and prosecute those who are trying to defraud us. PopUp A Sample CVV2.

We do not ship to PO Boxes. We will ship only to verifiable physical home or business addresses where we have certain knowledge that an authorized person will be available to accept and sign receipts for the shipment. Authorized signatures are required for ALL shipments.

Every computer has its own unique IP address. These addresses are logged and recorded by our system with every order. In the event of attempted fraud we will trace the attempt back to the originating computer. Those who attempt fraud are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Credit card payments are accepted ONLY from residents of the USA & Canada. Due to a very high rate of foreign based credit card and merchandise fraud, all other international customers must pre-pay in US dollars by International Money Orders, American Express Traveler Cheques or bank wire. Foreign shipments will not be made until after payment has been cleared. We regret that such security measures are necessary. Our security measures must be strict in order for us to remain in business.