Custom Add to Cart Button - How To Encrypt/Protect Myself?

[RossMosh]

Hi,

I'm a coding novice but I like custom options so I was forced into combining various HTML & Java code I found online to create an Add to Cart button that would work for me.

Now that I'm done (more or less), I have concerns about security.  My biggest concern is someone simply taking my code, making their own page with it, and changing my prices so that they can save money/submit fraudulent orders.  My other concern is my email address being on several pages which will obviously result in a lot of spam.  Obviously the last concern is the fact that people will know the email address associated with my account and attempt to hack the account.

So I'm looking for a relatively painless way of masking my email address or doing some sort of basic encryption so that I can protect myself.  If this is just a waste of time and something I shouldn't worry about.

Thank you in advanced.

[snowshoe]

If you check your PayPal Account Profile, you should have a what's called a Merchant Account ID. 

Login to your Account.

Clck on Profile.

Under My Business Info.

Look for Merchant Account ID - you should see it.

You can use that info in place of your PayPal Account email address in your item button code.   The Merchant Account ID has been around for several years and it's intent was to prevent email scanners from picking the email address used in the item button code.

[RossMosh]

Thanks for the info.  That takes care of the possibility of getting a lot of spam messages.

How about the other two issues?  Instead of encrypting the data is there any way to possibly have my account setup so that if an order is referred to from my website, that it will read as invalid?

[snowshoe]

Not really, but there is a feature called Authorization and Capture.  With this setup, you make the decision to either accept or reject the order.  (You really can do the same thing without using this feature.)   The advantage of this feature is for merchants you may have a delay in the order fulfillment process.  You can read more about here:

https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/en_US/developer/docs/pdf/pp_websitepaymentsstandard_integrat...

We been in the online business for years and from experience, the bigger concern is what happens after the sale.  Yes, someone can muck with code but, you're going to know that when you review it, you simply cancel the order.  It's after the sale is when the fun begins as there's quite a few tricks the not so honest customers are aware of.  There are many more honest customers out there, but if someone is determined to scam you, they usually know and understand the User Agreement better than the merchant or seller does.