You Can Pay Online:

Credit Card Transactions are Safe on Amazon.com. In an article by Rob Pegoraro in The Washington Post's "Fast Forward" magazine (May 1996), spokesmen for MasterCard International and AT Universal Card acknowledged that to date, they knew of no cases of Internet credit card fraud. Statistically, it's much safer to use your credit card on the Web than to use it in a restaurant or department store.

Amazon.com thinks that's good news, but they still take every possible precaution to protect the integrity of your credit card information.

Amazon.com offers you the choice of using the Netscape Secure Commerce Server, which encrypts any information you type in. You can safely enter your entire credit card number on the secure server, and it cannot be read in transit.

Remember, if you choose the secure server, all the information you enter on the order form --name, address, phone number, etc. is safely encrypted.

Don't Want to Pay Online? You Can Pay "Offline"

There are two ways you can order from Amazon.com without having to enter your complete credit card number on the Web:

1. Paying by check or postal money order

You can select "pay by check" on the order form, and send Amazon.com a personal check or postal money order in U.S. dollars for the amount of your order. Paying by check does slow down your order somewhat, as Amazon.com doesn't order your books until your check is received, and they don't ship the books to you until your funds clear. If you are in the United States, paying by personal check typically delays your order about seven to ten days.

2. Calling or faxing your card number

You can use your credit card without ever having to enter the complete number on the Internet. When filling out the order form, you can enter just the last five digits and the expiration date of your credit card on the order form. This gives them a way to track your order but guarantees your security. Then you can call or fax them to give us the rest of your credit card number. You can do this even if you can't use our secure server, and your credit card number will be totally protected.

Where is my personal information kept?

To give you an additional layer of security, all credit card numbers are stored on a computer that is not connected to the Internet. After you type it in, fax it in, or call it in, your complete credit card number is transferred to this secure machine across a proprietary one-way interface. This computer is not accessible by network or modem, and the number is not stored anywhere else.

Amazon.com does not now sell or rent their list of customers to anyone. If you would like to make sure they never sell or rent information about you to third parties, just send them a blank e-mail message at never@amazon.com