Order from essayontime.com - should I be worried about my identity being stolen?

I recently placed an order with essayontime.com[DND*], only to find this website less than 24 hours later and instantly went back to cancel my order. The guy on the phone tried endlessly to persuade me not to cancel my order, but I finally got it through to him I didn't want to keep my order and I should be receiving a full refund (the order never even fully went through since I cancelled it so quickly). But I'm just curious if I should be worried about identity theft, since I did input my card information when paying for my order. Can the company see my card information? They also had me confirm my billing address on the phone, not sure if that matters or not? Anyways, after reading all of these threads I'm stressing out, so I'm just hoping for a little peace of mind. Consider the lesson learned here!

essayontime.com[DND*] is operated by a deceptive company in Ukraine. What do you think?

Yeah I looked up the area code that they called me from yesterday...and it's from Greece?! Clearly not who they say they are. I extremely regret not finding this site sooner! All the other sites said it was a good and reliable company...: /

I can pretty much guarantee you that they own those other sites.

Yeah it appears to be quite an intricate and massive web they're weaving.

Ok, so as recent as last week I received a returned copy of an essay from essayontime. All I can say is that the whole process was a long,drawn out and tedious one, and not much fun at all. The English was ordinary to say the least and the customer service was equally appalling. After having them correct the essay 4 times and then having to completely rewrite the paper myself, I am happy to say that my lecturer has at least guaranteed me a pass. To say that this company tested my patience would be a slight understatement and thus have now taken my business elsewhere.

I'd still, just for safety's sake, report your card as "stolen" and re-new it. God knows when they could use that information again. Did you give them your social security number as well? =(

No I only gave my debit card information. I went back and looked at the order form and the little lock in the top right corner of my safari browser was there...which means the page should be secure, meaning my information should have been encrypted. I've been checking my bank statements throughout the last few days and everything looks normal. I normally wouldn't hesitate to just cancel the card and get a new one, but I'm currently studying abroad so I kind of would be screwed without my card.

uk essays have let so many students down, absolutely disgusting

If the order was cancelled quickly enough, there may not have been enough time for the personal information transfer.

However, since they confirmed your billing address over the phone, then there is a slight possibility that you should be worried about identity fraud.

I mean, considering the actual location of the company and such. It's never a good idea to give your actual credit card information to any of these companies fro a good reason, they will be storing your data and could use it in a negative manner in the future.

That is why I always tell students who wish to use these services to always use PayPal for the payment process. That is one of the best ways to protect your identity and payment digits online. Never pay by direct credit card. If a company doesn't trust PayPal, then I don't see a reason to trust them either. Don't give out credit card or debit card information for any reason.

You may not feel the effects of that decision now, but you may do so in the future. Always err on the side of caution. BTW, it would be best to change the debit card just in case. Provided you did not give them your bank account number as well, it should not be difficult to put a firewall around your identity and cards.

It doesn't matter if the information given came from a debit or credit card. The transfer of information to the other party is instantaneous these days. So the threat of identity theft, personal data mining, and other privacy invasion concerns when transacting online are real and its repercussions, scary. While the credit card companies and banks do their best to protect their clients, protecting personal data is still the primary responsibility of the card holder. So if the card holder finds himself in a situation where he needs to input his actual information online, those threats become real.

For students who often purchase items and services online, one of the best ways that I have found to help them keep their data private is by asking the bank to issue them an "internet use only" debit or credit card. That is a card that has a totally different number from their physical card and is encrypted in a different form to better protect the user data online. This is one of the other better options when Paypal is not an option or unavailable for the user.

I'd be more worried about essay companies that require customers to fill in fields identifying their colleges, because there's no justifiable reason for making that a required field just to place an order. Once they have that information, they'll threaten to use it against you if you try to avail yourself of any of their satisfaction or free-revision "guarantees." There are some recent threads on this forum detailing exactly that issue.

Do you know of a single "essay company" that requires customers to fill in such a field or you're just fantasizing..?

To be perfectly honest, I do not know, offhand, of any company that requires those fields. When a new client (to me) told me that he needed me to redo the same project he'd ordered from an essay company with atrocious, totally unusable results, I made a few suggestions about how to protect himself from getting ripped off, and he mentioned that he was afraid to argue with them because they knew where he went to school and even which professor taught the course. I asked how they knew this and the client explained that the order form included fields requesting that he fill in his personal information and his school information and email address. He wanted to avoid any problems with the company for that reason and just needed me to do the same project properly (and in much less time). I've actually had this kind of exchange with several new clients; but to be entirely fair, I have not seen those order forms myself and don't really know whether those fields are optional or strictly required. I just know that my immediate thought about that practice is that there's not much legitimate need for it; meanwhile, it provides ripe blackmailing amunition if that's something the company in question is in the habit of doing.

Neither do I, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least to learn of many that do. Surely, though, they are optional fields. To me, I would see a mandatory requirement as not only a red flag but also akin to discriminatory questions (i.e. race, gender, etc.).

When I work with clients, I am not concerned with which school they attend unless there is something specific to their school that must be covered in the order. My focus is on the requirements of the order and the academic level. I also agree that PayPal is the best option for protecting one's sensitive information, though more for the customer than the writer/service provider as PayPal routinely sides with the buyer regardless of whether or not a claim is valid.

Sometimes, the companies do not even have to steal the information from the student. Oftentimes, the student, in his eagerness to not have to do anything anymore with the paper aside from submit it for a grade, offer the information without being asked. They request for a cover page, a running header, and other formatting requirements that require them to submit their full name, student number, professor name, and university. This is done unconsciously as they believe that the writing service should be trusted with the information to "complete" the paper. This is the biggest mistake the student can make. The payment system isn't the only way the companies can get their hands on the private data of the student. Students should know better than to ask for a cover page and running header in the first place.

It is imperative that students be weary of any website that they will be inputting their private and financial information into. They must properly investigate the credentials of the company by looking up reviews about it and gaining insights into how the companies work before hiring the service of the said company. Remember that even an AI app can be programmed to steal your information without your knowledge. The more reliant we are on technology, the more careful we must be about protecting our personal data. These breaches occur and are sometimes kept out of the news to stop people from panicking about how easy it is to gain access to personal information with just a simple click.