Hop Hero Brewing Supplies??

[TonyKZ1]

Has anyone heard of Hop Hero Brewing Supplies? I've emailed back and forth a couple times with the owner and then went ahead and bought some 1G AG & 3G PM/Extract recipes monday evening. His prices are pretty good and he's got a nice selection of recipes. Along with a few discounts too, first time order, fall discounts, etc.

The recipes I ordered shipped in a couple days with flat rate shipping, so I should have them soon and will be brewing them asap.

ps. I also just ordered some 2G Hellfire Deep Red Ale Plus and Ye Olde Devil Nut Brown Ale Plus recipes from BrewDemon last night. I know the YOD Nut Brown Ale will be good as I've had that before and I imagine the HD Red Ale will be good too.

[RickBeer]

Never heard of them - took a quick look.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

This is a very rudimentary site, and when they collect your data to purchase they are NOT using a secure page - and they are collecting name, address, phone number, DOB, PASSWORD... Since the site has been around for years, this is doubly bad. They also ask for DOB, which is totally unnecessary given that they are not selling alcohol.

I would recommend people not use this site due to this.

[TonyKZ1]

Well, I just got an email reply from him with the tracking number of my order and my questions about the security of his site. Copied from his email "As for your question about security, our site runs through a private security company and we have never had a breach. Please let me know if you feel your information has been compromised and I will look into it right away."
Thanks, Tony

And I found this while searching for info. So I guess we'll see if my recipes arrive quickly and how fresh they are, hopefully there won't be any issues or problems.
Domain Name: HOPHERO.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com

I also had McAfee siteadvisor check it out and they came back with "This link is safe. We tested it and didn't find any significant security issues."

[RickBeer]

Let me try again.

When you buy from a website, you want the transaction encrypted. Instead of http: you want to see https: and a padlock or other symbol in your browser (differs by browser). This ensures that when you submit your confidential information to the site, it goes ENCRYPTED, so that someone cannot view the stream of data and see anything. It also tells you that the destination of the information, i.e. a folder on the company's server, is a secure area of their server.

In this case, none of that holds true. He is not only not securing the information, he's collecting unnecessary information like your date of birth.

His shopping cart is powered by ZenCart. On their site it says:

NOTE: Use of HTTPS (ie: SSL) is highly recommended for the purpose of protecting the data you collect about your customers, and their payments. In fact, some payment modules require SSL in order
to work, and using them without SSL is typically a violation of your TOS with your merchant bank and PCI compliance.

Since he only accepts PayPal, I assume that if you make a purchase it takes you through PayPal's secure payment process. That's good. But collecting the other info in a non-secure environment is very bad.

Never provide your confidential payment information to any website that does not provide an https page for the information, and seriously question any company that has you give them any account-setup information in a non-secure environment.

[TonyKZ1]

Thanks for the more info & reply. I understand about wanting the https:// plus a padlock or something in the browser signifying a secure site, other sites I use do have that. I did use Paypal to pay for the recipes so that's good.
Thanks, Tony

[TonyKZ1]

Well, I got my order tonight, 2 3G Extract w/steeping grains and 4 1G AG recipes. Needless to say it was a nice order, good prices, well packaged and flat rate shipping. However, due to the security issues as RickBeer pointed out I asked for my account to be deleted. Once he fixes that, I'll buy from him again as he's got a large variety of 1G & 3G recipes, mostly AG but some Extract based too.

I also received my BrewDemon order, they quickly shipped and was packaged well, as always. I'm very happy with them and their products.
Now, I'll have some brewing to do over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend.
Tony

[berryman]

I've posted this again and again, If you are worried about buying on-line from a company that you have never done business with or for that matter one you have. Buy a pre-paid card, yes it cost me about 5 dollars extra for up to a 500 dollar order but when the money is gone there is nothing a scammer can get from you. Like a burn phone - not much for a trace. I think it's safe insurance when buying on-line....
Edit; if this company is collecting and selling your info, I don't think I'd like this very good either, but sounds like you got what you ordered and paid for and that is good......

[RickBeer]

Doesn't solve the info you gave being accessible. This site is PayPal only, but your DOB and other info is exposed.

I use a virtual credit card on some online orders, some credit cards offer them free.

[TonyKZ1]

Yep, a co-worker does something similar to that, he uses a virtual credit card that he can use once or as long as he wants.