[ic] Pay Pal

[Ed LaFrance]

At 02:06 AM 8/28/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Peter [peter at pajamian.dhs.org] wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > That could work to allow the user to enter thier
> > paypal username and ID and then process the transaction in the
> > background as you suggest would be ideal.
> >
>There's no chance that I would give my PayPal email address and password
>to any website, other than PayPal's own.  The password is the only
>security offered by their system, so I would be foolish to give it to
>any third party.

We could run all the scenarios on this (and I won't, to save space) and we 
would find that with a little preparation, your exposure is not 
significantly greater in this case than with other electronic forms of 
payment - they all represent risk, can be abused, and have checks in place 
to limit the damage. The best defense is always to be a smart shopper, and 
if you don't trust the merchant, don't do business with them in the 1st place.

Having said all that, It may very well be against PayPal's rules and regs 
to key your id and password into a third party website, which would void 
any protections they offer you - as someone else pointed out.

So coming full circle, I still think the best way to accept paypal is 
post-transactionally, with a 'Pay Now' link on the receipt.

- Ed L.


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