SkyEurope Caters to Nervous Online Customers
European low cost carrier SkyEurope has just started a new payment system for customers who get freaked out about putting their credit card details onto the internet. In the modern spirit of joining a bunch of words together with no capitals or hyphens, it's the paysafecard, a pre-paid PIN-protected card that you can use online instead of putting your real credit card info at risk.
SkyEurope is the first airline to hop on the paysafecard bandwagon and they're pretty proud about it, calling it "revolutionary." Whether or not they'll really pick up extra customers this way is something we question, but the idea is certainly not a bad one.
The catch is you have to buy it in pre-paid amounts (of €10, €25, €50 or €100), so you're going to keep ending up with leftover money. Maybe they need to revolutionize the idea just a bit more.
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[Photo: Dr. Jaus]
At first it made no sense. Why were suspected Vegas hookers and drug addicts often found carrying so many key cards from hotels and casinos? The suspects claimed that they were souvenirs or things they'd just happened to find, but that didn't exactly make sense. It turned out that criminals had got their hands on used-up cards, wiped them clean of whatever data was on them, and then re-coded them with someone's stolen credit-card info. The "credit cards" were then used in places like convenience stores or gas stations for purchases under $20 or so -- small purchases don't set off fraud alarms the way larger bills do. OK, fine, but would it be too much to ask that a credit card actually be embossed with someone's name and not just be printed with a Hilton or Hard Rock logo? 
