David Stutzman wrote:
Ian G wrote:
Have a look at the holographic logo on your credit card ... that's a
brand that is hard to copy that the *merchant* can check.
But even they don't. I stopped signing my debit/credit cards about 6
months ago. I use my debit card heavily and only ONCE was I asked to
show ID.
I think you'll find smaller merchants - those
that have to pay out of their own pockets - will
look and check more closely. Larger merchants
will simply write it off. Try paying at small
remote restaraunts where you are "out of
town."
Doesn't give me a warm/fuzzy feeling if I ever lose my cards.
The whole mess is much worse than a lack
of warm/fuzzy feeling, check out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6814673/
If they're not even bothering to check for a signature I doubt they're
checking the authenticity of the hologram. In practice, it's too much
to ask some minimum-wage earning fool at the supermarket (I can say
that because I was once one) to not become complacent. The problem is
that given enough time and repetitiveness of something just about
everyone will become complacent.
Sure. That's something to deal with in the
future. But bear in mind here that you are
looking at the edge cases, not the whole
cycle. The logo on the credit card works
well to raise the costs of a card forger. It
is just one of a whole range of little tricks,
which includes PIN numbers, security
codes, smart chips and what have you.
Just because you don't see it working
doesn't mean it serves no purpose. The
specific case of the logo was that it helped
enourmously back in the 80s to slow forged
card producers. These days, though, as the
identity info is hotter, a stolen card gets
used over the net, not in the shop. So the
logo has lost its importance over time.
iang
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