It is far preferable for the merchant to request ID and verify that the signature matches the ID _AND_ the picture in the ID matches the customer.
In the late 1990s I had a Visa card from (I think) Citibank that had my picture embossed on the front of the card. I'm surprised this didn't catch on with more card issuers. I see that Bank of America offers this free of charge to their Visa clients, as do some US based credit unions.
That card was never lost or stolen, so I don't know if the photo verification would fail as spectacularly as signatures do.
--lyndon
