Is it safe to use your credit card to make purchases from us? The short answer is "yes, it is."

In the interest of full-disclosure and consumer education, we provide the following additional detail.

Credit card safety on-line is widely misunderstood. Merchants, banks, software companies, and others put a lot of energy into convincing consumers that the technology involved completely protects them from the compromise and fraudulent use of their accounts. It does not.

Digital SSL Certificate

Our server uses the strongest grade of SSL digital security certificate available (128-bit.) The certificate is issue by Comodo, a major provider of SSL certificates. In addition to issuing us an SSL certificate, Comodo certifies the security of your communications with us using our SSL server for upto $10,000 USD. Hover your mouse pointer over the logo below to verify our certificate information through their website.

When you visit our secure pages, you should see a locked padlock icon in the corner of your browser window. Clicking or double-clicking on that padlock icon should bring up a window with the certificate details. There, you can verify that the certificate is ours. The organization name should read Evermore Enterprises. If it does not, someone may be intercepting your communications with us.

Although most companies involved with digital SSL certificates would have you believe that this is absolute protection for your communications, it is not. Noted Internet security expert Bruce Schneier, in his book Secrets and Lies (Amazon link) comments, "digital certificates provide no actual security for electronic commerce; it's a complete sham." The issues he discusses apply to all sites using digital SSL certificates, not just our site. We believe that our SSL certificate does provide some protection and authentication and should contribute toward your trust in doing business with us on-line.

Additional Precautions

We have taken some additional technological precautions to further protect your private data. Our on-line credit card verification and processing is handled in real-time. When you enter your credit card number into our site, it is relayed directly to the processing center and is not stored on our servers. This makes our server a less-appealing target for crackers.

We also take many other precautions to keep our servers and your information safe and secure.

Your Legal Rights

The most compelling reasons to feel confident in doing business with us on-line are your rights as a consumer and a credit card holder. In the event that your card is used without your permission and you are unable to resolve the issue, you may file a fraud complaint with the bank that issued your credit card. Usually, this involves a simple phone call to the bank's 800 number or a brief letter stating that you did not make the charge.

People often mistakenly believe that they may be liable for transactions made on their accounts should their card numbers be compromised on-line. If you lose your card, you can, at the discretion of the issuing bank, be liable for up to $50 worth of charges made before you reported your card missing.

If your card was not physically present with the merchant at the time of the transaction, your liability is limited to $0. You have no obligation to pay anything for an on-line transaction you did not initiate. Be aware that the merchant and the bank that issued your credit card will investigate such claims and that you will be held criminally liable for issuing a fraudulent complaint.

Some credit card companies take this further and extend an explicit guarantee of fraud protection when doing business on-line. See American Express's Fraud Guarantee page for details of their program.