Do not Use Firefox 3 to Make Secure Payments Online

Posted by Saad Hamid on July 9, 2008

Firefox 3 is no doubt the most secure state-of-the-art browser that has some amazing security features.

But if you use Firefox 3 to make secure payments online using your credit card then you might want to consider switching to Internet Explorer and here is why!

Today I was signing up a registration form at LayeredTech Technologies to purchase a dedicated server for one of my upcoming services. As soon as I hit the submit button, Firefox crashed.

When I restarted Firefox, it opened the processed signup page and to my horror my credit card was processed twice. Thanks to the excellent support at LayeredTech, I explained my issue to them and they released one of the transaction after a little verification.

But not everyone is lucky enough! Firefox 3 has a good tendency of crashing at the very worst time so if you want to save your money, always switch to Internet Explorer while making secure payments online.

Posted in: Software/OS

  • good for you i heard the same thing from a friend as well
    but he wasnt lucky and got charged twice :(
  • Good for you that you got your money back. :)
    Btw what new service are you planning, which will need a dedicated server?
  • Well :) its kind of secret for now.

    It won't be truly a unique service but something that new bloggers will like a lot.
  • Po Vit
    Sorry, but the "most secure state-of-the-art browser that has some amazing security features" is Opera browser, though it is not so popular with users through some subjective and objective reasons.
  • @Po Vit

    To each his own :)
  • Jean
    Wouldn't change to IE even if it would save me from 40 charges...
  • OP Dave
    Duplicate charges for the same transaction are 90% the fault of the site which processed your on-line charge: not your browser.

    There should always be a provision in the card-processing software to reject duplicate charges for the same transaction/invoice.
  • The best wise thing would be to keep myself on the safe-side on the first place and for that I certainly have to use a browser which does not crash while submitting forms.
  • Davin Peterson
    I have noticed that Firefox 3 has crashed more often than Firefox 2.
  • @David Peterson

    For me Firefox 3 crashes ten times more as often as Firefox 2.

    I hope at least someone agrees with me.
  • As "OP Dave" mentioned every site that includes a system for online payments should be aware of such things such as crashes, duplicate submits and other USER inputs that might alter the transaction, in your case by charging you twice.

    @Dj Flush: Why did you restored your session after the crash? You could checked with the company if the order process was okay after the crash and if not, do it again :>

    For me, working everyday with FF3 and having lot of tabs opened i have expirienced a small amount of crashes. After all, most of Firefox crashes in the previous versions had to do with some Addons that messed up with the rendering engine of the browser. ( Firebug was one + Yslow another! )
  • Ray B
    So you recommend using IE ,
    (the browser with the worst security history)
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9984277-33.html

    over Firefox (the most secure )
    http://www.crn.com/security/208802248

    just because the site you accessing doesn't properly handle duplicate transactions ?

    So what you are saying is you would rather have your sensitive information stolen than risk possible duplicate ( 1 time) charge?
  • :O firefox mysteries are taking dark sides day by day
  • Can be pretty hard on you at times, what I do at times when the browser crashes at a critical time is to check if the order has already been placed or not.

    I only order a second time after I have confirmed that my card has not been charged, even though it may take a few hours to confirm that.
  • sorry for your crash of cash, but i think this is special case, i do online banking and transfer of fund using FF and so far so good since FF3 beta 2.
  • Jay
    Wouldn't it be simpler to set Firefox not to reopen webpages after restarting, or am I missing soemthing here?
  • FF does seem to have a lot of Security vulnerabilites. Lucky you got you money back.
  • Tom
    This is actually an issue with their site, they are using GET instead of POST to process the transaction. Important things like that should always use GET. In fact, google deleted some peoples sites accidentally because they used GET (which is used to download and crawl webpages) instead of POST (which is used to send data to the server properly, like with this comment). You should complain to them about how they use GET instead of POST.
  • Unless you have session restore configured to automatically restore your session, you were prompted and chose to have Firefox reopen your tabs the 2nd time. Being on an SSL website, Firefox naturally, for your security didn't cache that page and reloaded it, which was unfortunate for your case as reloading the page was a "bad thing". If you're concerned about your session being reloaded again, choose the don't resume option when Firefox prompts you, simple as that.

    Its unfortunate you got double-charged and that Firefox crashed. Make sure you send in a crash report so those crashes can be fixed, or passed on to the plugin or addon vendors responsible.
  • Hrm, much better explaination of the problem in the comment before mine.
    "Important things like that should always use _POST_." (correction) and Firefox's session restore is smart enough to not resend post information which may result in such duplicate transactions. You should definitely complain to any online retailer who uses GET for forms for such things as the entire query string including your sensitive info is sent in the URL. :-)
  • Chris
    "Wouldn’t change to IE even if it would save me from 40 charges"

    Jean, you are one stupid bitch
  • Mon
    Same thing happened to me, luckily I was using PayPal, it crashed before it got processed... phew!
  • larry
    I will take my chances getting billed twice for an online payment before I will will I.E. to make a secure payment I E has more holes than a swiss cheese when it comes to anything security related. the only reason most people have it and that it is the most common browser is because #1 mmicrosoft wil. not allow us to use other browsers for windows update. &; I'E' comes installed with windows. i myself use I.E. ONLY For wwidows update. Anything else I use Fire fox or opera.
  • Robert
    This is one of the most ridiculous post I've ever read. Hahahaha, it's almost a joke!
    I'll bookmark as funny. :-D
blog comments powered by Disqus