Gary called me to ask a question about the OCF store that wasn't clear to someone, so I am going to post the answer here so all can see it.
We host our web site in Canada. We originally did this because it was cheaper to pay in Canadian dollars... wish those days were back. Anyway when you come here or to the main site you are going to a computer/server in Toronto.
We host the store part of the site on a server in California. This is because the financial transaction part of the store is managed by Wells Fargo Bank, who process our credit cards. We cannot collect money in a foreign country and stay in good graces with the IRS. Two. Also please note that when you enter the store several things. One, the url for the store says https. This means you are on a secure web page. There is also a certificate of the encryption and security status of the store in the bottom left of the page you can click on. Never do anything financial like put in a credit card number here or anywhere else on the web, if you don't see https on the page you are entering it on. Three. Please note that besides paying/donating with your credit card, you can do this with the very popular PayPal system which is part of eBay. It is very secure and if you use that system you are aware of this. Paypal finally allows us to get paid for something outside the US. It's free to sign up for, but takes a few days while they check out your financial info. Four. No one at OCF ever sees your credit card information. This was set up this way on purpose with Wells Fargo Bank as a security measure. I have, for foreign accounts and two older people who were not web connected, manually processed someone's credit card for them at the bank after they provided me with all the info by email or by fax (which was shredded after processing). Those are the only cases in which anyone's account information was handled by OCF. This is all very secure and in 6 years we have never had a problem. When you are on the OCF store the url says ocfstore.org and that is correct. It is not a bogus site, but a different name necessary to run it at a different location (California) from the main web site.
