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Yah, it's pretty rare to check for a sig. This page has a nice writeup from a guy who decided to see how far he could go in goofing around with the signature.

This is completely contrary to my experience. Every time I've ever payed with a credit card, the person accepting my credit card has never looked at the back of my card. In fact, (and, yes, I just looked,) my credit card isn't even signed. Signatures are not a security measure -- they're a formality. There's a light-hearted look at the issue here.

This article is nothing new. THat chip and pin does not increase security was shown by Ross Anderson (author of "Security Engineering") et al http://www.finextra.com/Finextra-downloads//featur edocs/spin.pdf. That people do not correctly verify credit card signatures was shown by zug.copm http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Pardon me, I left off the link to the Zug.com prank(s).

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

can't believe bank and cops gave u such bad advice.
check this story , where the seller teaches a lesson to the scammer.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

You want funny? Try Zug

Yeah but scammers are now useing new souper P-P-P-Powerbooks!

There is no way you are going to bring down their site.

The signature requirement is nonsense. Signatures have been proven very useless both here and here

Credit card signatures are worthless and completely ignored unless your purchase is for a significant amount of money, well into the thousands of dollars.

The signature requirement is nonsense. Signatures have been proven very useless both here and here

Credit card signatures are worthless and completely ignored unless your purchase is for a significant amount of money, well into the thousands of dollars.

Well, any article about RIM recalls the prank called RIM Job :)

The link you posted is part II of that "series". It's an escalation of an earlier series of credit card pranks. I don't know if it was featured here or not.

Slightly OT, but the best prank on that site is the p-p-p-powerbook!

The link you posted is part II of that "series". It's an escalation of an earlier series of credit card pranks. I don't know if it was featured here or not.

Slightly OT, but the best prank on that site is the p-p-p-powerbook!

The link you posted is part II of that "series". It's an escalation of an earlier series of credit card pranks. I don't know if it was featured here or not.

Slightly OT, but the best prank on that site is the p-p-p-powerbook!

Zug.com has a funny prank, that was listed on /. the other month, about someone signing his credit card receipts with phony names or pictures.

I tried it, it's no problem, just sign all of your bills "It's Me", no one cares.

Just steal someone's credit card and sign it with a pritt-sticked picture

On the topic of credit card signatures:
I like Shamu.

(Spoiler: Circuit City gets it right at the end)

Did he try to sign his name as "not a valid signature"? :P

3) Finally, and most disturbingly, Jeff was not heard from again. I personally e-mailed him for permission to run his story on ZUG, but after an initial response, I never heard from him again. All of his Web sites have come down, and he is nowhere to be found.

Jeff, wherever you are, this P-P-P-Powerbook's for you.

In fact, I'd like to add that companies like paypal penalise those who get frauded by others. In one case, a friend of mine was "paid $1000" over paypal, and a week later, paypal took it away and charged him $500 for a really dodgy reason. I constantly hear of such cases over paypal and the end result is that the frauder wins in one way or another.

Whats even worse is that I have never seen any online store do a basic check to see if users were on a proxy or not, which could easily help reduce fraud if they did.

Unrelated, if you want to see just how much credit card companies care about fraud, a rather funny link can be found at http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/. It explains why I dont have a credit card...

For those who haven't seen it (Like anyone in this crowd wouldnt have seen this), I'd suggest reading the P-P-P-Powerbook Story as a great compliment. These stories of Scammers getting Scammed never get old.

Next time warn people if you're going to link to an article with an image like this. Or this. Sweet mother of Jesus some of these are wrong.

Next time warn people if you're going to link to an article with an image like this. Or this. Sweet mother of Jesus some of these are wrong.

Next time warn people if you're going to link to an article with an image like this. Or this. Sweet mother of Jesus some of these are wrong.

What's next, a test of whether penis enlargement pills work?

On this topic: Does signing a credit card receipt actually mean anything?

Apparently not.

Does anybody in N. America check signatures? They hardly seem to look at my cards. I have a friend who wrote "See ID" on the signature strip of their card and it took four months before she had a request.

It's worse. Way worse. This guy on zug.com experimented with some..."creative" signatures:

Next I tried the old standby, "X." I was kind of nervous about this one, and had a long story prepared about how I had recently been involved in a motorcycle accident, and during my sixteen months in traction had only been able to sign with an X, a signature which grew on me. At the last minute, I chickened out and added an additional squiggly. I don't know why I was concerned; I was just buying a beer at Jillian's.

Signing X, incidentally, is not a bad idea -- it's quick and easy, and if someone wants you to "sign on the X," it's already signed.

The Credit Card Prank
The Credit Card Prank II

It's worse. Way worse. This guy on zug.com experimented with some..."creative" signatures:

Next I tried the old standby, "X." I was kind of nervous about this one, and had a long story prepared about how I had recently been involved in a motorcycle accident, and during my sixteen months in traction had only been able to sign with an X, a signature which grew on me. At the last minute, I chickened out and added an additional squiggly. I don't know why I was concerned; I was just buying a beer at Jillian's.

Signing X, incidentally, is not a bad idea -- it's quick and easy, and if someone wants you to "sign on the X," it's already signed.

The Credit Card Prank
The Credit Card Prank II

In fact, wasn't it America where the Dodgy credit card signatures prank was done?

Not UK - which, as other commenters have said, has had Chip and PIN for a while now. (Although on a security front, the PIN is the same for the card transactions as it is for the ATM side - so in theory someone could stand behind a chip/pin user in a shop, then steal the card and have all relevant information already...)

here, here, here and here.

It's really quite amazing what you can get away with.

I must look very sketchy (shaved head, occassionally possessing a goatee) because I get asked for ID OFTEN in CA.

here, here, here and here.

It's really quite amazing what you can get away with.

I must look very sketchy (shaved head, occassionally possessing a goatee) because I get asked for ID OFTEN in CA.

here, here, here and here.

It's really quite amazing what you can get away with.

I must look very sketchy (shaved head, occassionally possessing a goatee) because I get asked for ID OFTEN in CA.

here, here, here and here.

It's really quite amazing what you can get away with.

I must look very sketchy (shaved head, occassionally possessing a goatee) because I get asked for ID OFTEN in CA.

heh...compared to what they do here. :)

See here. It is a test to see if anyone would notice the fake signatures/drawings/scribbles on the credit card receipts/transactions? It was funny to read and see the scanned images (love those drawings and unreadable scribbles).

I learned a trick for myself. I write "ASK FOR ID" on the back of all my credit/debit cards

Another thing that is important to mention is that you should never leave your cards unsigned. I work retail and there are a good percentage of people who leave thier cards insigned so that way people will check thier ID. The bad thing about this is that someone could easily pick the card up and sign the cardholders name on the back. This dosn't even occur to those who refuse to sign.

It is amazing whay you can get away with before someone will check your card.

Maybe he just wanted to see if anyone would notice.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/

Yah, uh-huh. I was (working for) one of Alan B. Clegg's customers around '93 or so: http://www.zug.com/pranks/outgoing/gateway.html/ And, even though this suggests Alan prevailed: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/domain/gatew ay.html/ This: http://www.gateway.com/ seems to suggest that the Gway2K now has the domain. Anybody know the rest of the story?

... To stop pranks like this.
P-P-P-Powerbook
I know Zug has had some /. coverage in the past, but I hope no one missed this prank. :)

from Sen. Hatch.

Without giving too much away, it concerns a fellow who exacts sweet, sweet pornographic revenge for the loss of his job...

Without giving too much away, it concerns a fellow who exacts sweet, sweet pornographic revenge for the loss of his job...

Without giving too much away, it concerns a fellow who exacts sweet, sweet pornographic revenge for the loss of his job...

Apparently, Rebok put an ad on the tv that used a very disgusting fake company name during a recent Superbowl. The guy at this site was sure it was intentional, so he rang them up ...

I don't know if this actually happened, I'm an Australian, don't watch Superbowl.

the really funny (but sadly defunct) Computer Stew web-comedy once had a Renovate Your Cube episode, in which they roofed over some guy's cude and panneled the walls etc, etc. John Hargrave, where are you now?

The fact that it's "been done before" is irrelevant. Things get "reinvented" all of the time. Sheesh, cow-orkers, or to quote my boss "If it weren't for the clients and the employees, this job would be perfect".

the really funny (but sadly defunct) Computer Stew web-comedy once had a Renovate Your Cube episode, in which they roofed over some guy's cude and panneled the walls etc, etc. John Hargrave, where are you now?

Few merchants checks credit card signatures.

Here's a funny link posted to slashdot some time ago: the credit card prank..

Actually (IANAL, in fact i'm just speculating), you might be able to get away with using the card and just not signing any of the receitps.

202-775-0101 ....

Read this account of how far you'd have to go to get them to reject a signature (answer: extremely far).