On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:54:10 -0700, charlieb
wrote:

As for downloading software - I DO NOT provide my debit card
number over the internet - period. So far I haven't found a
way to pay for the software over the phone - to a known
phone number I can verify via a net search - and get a code
to "unlock" downloaded software.

First, commiseration on your saga - been there, done that, many times
in the past.

Second, you may want to re-think the CC/DC number over Internet thing.
Lots of people hesitate to do so, but the truth is that if you are on
a secure transaction site from a reputable company there is little to
worry about. I thought I was paranoid in that I actually have a
separate bank account that I use mostly for on-line stuff (including
Paypal) but in probably close to 15 years of buying off the Internet I
have never had a problem. On the other hand, I have twice had my
credit card number stolen from face-to-face transactions. Once a
rather stupid gas station guy who actually used his own e-mail address
to sign up for a porn subscription using my card which he simply
copied the relevant information when he was running it through the
machine. The other time it was almost certainly from a restaurant
worker. I know those two were not from Internet use because that
particular card was not ever used on-line. The point is that careful
Internet usage is both safe and reliable - possibly more so than any
other type of transaction with your card.

I hope you've gotten it all back working for you. We have 11
computers in our house, so updates are a pretty continual fact of life
here, but it never gets simple.

Tim Douglass

http://www.DouglassClan.com

"I'm not exactly burned out, but I'm a little bit scorched and there's some smoke damage."