How can I convince my mum that putting her bank details aren't going to get stolen everytime she puts them on the internet?

I dont blame her, ive had my bank account emptied by someone who got my information online when i was younger, its definatly not something you ever want to go through again. I will order things offline occasionaly, but only from well known stores. It is risky.

you could try explaining to her about ‘128 bit encryption.’ what this does is make it near impossible for other people to view the page she would be typing her details into. all UK banks have this. veriSign for instance (when i buy stuff online) will always ask for extra info before allowing the purchase to be compleated. its also harder nowadays due to having to enter the last 3 numbers on teh reverse of teh card which can only be done if teh card is in your hands. i use firefox and you know your on a encrypted site cus the far left of the address bar turns green and if you click it youll get all the info: see pic. you also get a padlock symbol in teh bottom right of the of the browser. also you might want to tell her about what firewalls are for ;)

It’s more secure than giving them to a sales person over the phone or writing them down to send by mail to a catalog that’s for sure :). In those two instances that people used to do all the time before the internet, you know that some human is reading (and potentially copying down for their own use later) all your bank info. On the reputable websites, the data you put in to buy something is encrypted. The only people who see it are those at the credit card company (or your bank if you use a bank card) who then pay the online store without giving the store your personal info.

There is some risk to everything. Sensitive information is breached every day. It isn’t entirely irrational to fear her credit card info being stolen.

A friend of mine has one credit card he only uses for internet purchases. It intentionally has a low limit of $1,000 and every time his bank tries to raise it he declines. Even if this card is compromised the thieves wouldn’t get much.

Even better some banks even off disposable credit card numbers that can be used only once. With these, customers do not have to worry if someone steals their number because it is invalid after it is used.

I do have a lot of financial information here and there on the internet. I use my bank’s bill pay so they have a huge amount of information; should this ever be lost I could be financially devastated. It all comes down to benefit/cost ratio. I put up with a small risk because I see the benefit as being large.