[153683] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Dear Linkedin,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Owen DeLong)
Sun Jun 10 15:31:27 2012
In-Reply-To: <201206101058.q5AAwujs033602@aurora.sol.net>
From: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:29:46 -0700
To: Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net>
Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
The credit card companies should pull their heads out of their asses about t=
his.
It is much better from an anti-fraud perspective for a stolen card not to co=
ntain a specimen signature for the thief to learn to forge.
It is far preferable for the merchant to request ID and verify that the sign=
ature matches the ID _AND_ the picture in the ID matches the customer.
I've never had my card refused because I wrote SEE ID on the signature panel=
in lieu of my signature. I have been frequently asked for my ID and make a p=
oint of thanking the merchant for their diligence in each of those cases.
I've only had one merchant get a little persnickety about the lack of a sign=
ature technically invalidating the card. I basically explained why I did it t=
hat way and informed them that they could cancel the transaction if they did=
n't like my methods. They chose not to cancel the transaction.
(Which was a rather significant sale in a relatively small shop)
Owen
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 10, 2012, at 3:58 AM, Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> wrote:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Barry Shein" <bzs@world.std.com>
>>=20
>>> A friend would print in block letters in the sig area of his credit
>>> cards "ASK FOR PHOTO ID". He said that almost always cashiers et al
>>> would give a cursory glance like they were checking his signature and
>>> say thank you and hand him back his card.
>>=20
>> This seems like an altogether excellent time to haul out *this* old
>> chestnut:
>>=20
>> http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/
>>=20
>> FWIW, My cards have always said SEE ID, and I get about a 40% or so hit
>> rate on that. It's been odd recently, cause I sometimes forget, and the
>> privacy reflex kicks in and makes me want to say "Why??" :-)
>=20
> If your card is not signed, your card is invalid and should not be=20
> accepted by any merchant.
>=20
> http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/MerchantAcceptanceGuide_Manual.p=
df
>=20
> Page 8-2; "Unsigned Credit Cards". VISA has similar requirements.
>=20
> Writing "SEE ID" in the signature panel primarily makes your card invalid
> *unless* your signature is also present.
>=20
> One of the design goals of the V/MC system is that a cardholder is not
> supposed to need anything other than their card and the ability to sign.
> The comparison of the signature provided to the card signature is=20
> supposed to be one of the primary ways to validate a cardholder, but of
> course these days, most vendors are lazy and don't.
>=20
> In fact, one of my favorite abusive merchant practices, trying to require
> ID, is expressly prohibited:
>=20
> http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/BM-Entire_Manual_public.pdf
>=20
> Page 5-14, sec. 5.8.4, "Additional Cardholder Identification".
>=20
> They're allowed to ask, you're allowed to refuse, and absent a good
> reason, they're not allowed to refuse your transaction. Now, if your
> signature doesn't match or something else is particularly fishy, yes,
> then they should require it, but they cannot require it by default for
> all transactions they process.
>=20
> That and a "minimum charge" are among the two most common merchant
> violations I see.
>=20
> For MasterCard violations, report them!
>=20
> http://www.mastercard.us/support/merchant-violations.html
>=20
> ... JG
> --=20
> Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
> "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] the=
n I
> won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam=
(CNN)
> With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many appl=
es.
