GVU's Security of Transactions Questionnaire

Listed below are some of the alternative manners in which you might purchase from Web vendors. For each scenario, please indicate how likely you are to buy a competitively priced product/service that you really wanted. (In each case assume that you are providing the needed information, and receiving the product/service directly from the vendor.)

You provide credit card and purchase information through a toll call/fax

You provide credit card and purchase information through a tollfree call/fax

You set up an account with the vendor offline once, then provide a vendor-specific account number and purchase information each time you want to make a purchase on the Web

You provide credit card and purchase information through electronic mail

Your credit card and purchase information would be scrambled and transmitted over the Internet to the vendor. Any subsequent transmissions from the vendor would also be scrambled.

Please indicate your agreement/disagreement with each of the following statements.

Providing credit card information through the Web:

is just plain foolish

is the single most important reason I don't buy through the Web more often

is riskier than providing it over the phone to an offline vendor

is riskier than providing it to some unknown store when traveling away from home

is riskier than faxing it to an offline vendor

would not matter much if the prices were considerably lower

would not matter much if the products/services were of a higher quality

would not matter much if the Web vendor was well known and reliable

Some have suggested the use of reliable third parties.
  1. Instead of dealing separately with each vendor, the buyer would set up an account with a central company (the issuer).
  2. When making a purchase from any participating vendor, the buyer would provide this account number to the vendor.
  3. In turn, the vendor would get approval from the issuer, and ship/provide the product/service to you.
  4. The issuer would charge the purchase amount to your account.

For each of the following third party possibilities, please indicate how likely you are to set up an account with them offline, and then use your account number to purchase from participating vendors. Once again, assume that the vendor is offering a competitively priced product/service that you really want.

a bank (e.g., Bank of America, Citibank, etc.)

a mall operator who was previously unknown to you

a mall operator well known to you (e.g., internetMCI)

a major credit card company (Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover)

a check clearing company (e.g. Telecheck)

other well known third parties (e.g., Microsoft, Intuit, Goldman Sachs, etc.)

digitally based banks/currency providers(e.g., First Virutal, DigiCash, CyberCash, etc.)

Finally, compared to dealing directly with each vendor, how much more or less likely are you to actually make purchases when your most preferred third party is also involved in the transaction.

This questionnaire was developed by:
Sunil Gupta, Michigan Business School, University of Michigan