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Credit card signatures: Useless?
SpaceAdmiral writes "Everyone should remember John Hargrave's classic Credit Card Prank on Zug. He tried signing fake names on his credit card receipt, and no one seemed to care.
But that's nothing compared to The Credit Card Prank, Part 2. Can he draw obscene pictures instead of signing his credit card? Yes, it turns out. Is there any way of getting your signature checked? . . . Yes, it turns out. But you have to do an awful lot."
A story I heard once somewhere on the web:
"I once went to Target to buy a CD and used my new credit card to pay. After signing the receipt the cashier took my card and looked at the back and said "You haven't signed the back of your credit card.", I took my credit card back and signed the back of it and gave it back to her. She then proceeded to compare the back of my just signed credit card with the signature I had also just made on the receipt and said "Yep, they match". I just shook my head, took my stuff and left."
Actually, despite my experience in the past with this kind of sillyness, I have noticed a lot more cashiers taking more care to make sure that the signature really matches. Just yesterday I went to Half Price Books and thought that the cashier was going to breakout a magnifying glass to ensure that the signature was authentic.
One of the first things you notice when on holiday in the US (buying petrol, stuff, whatever) is that they don't look at your credit card signature. Ever.
In the UK (and I think most of Europe) it's a lot different. I've been asked to re-sign because my (legitimate!) signature wasn't quite similar enough. It doesn't help when you've got a 3-year-old card where the signature is pretty much worn-off anyway
Another weird thing about the US is that pretty much the entire world wants to know your social-security number. The only person in the UK who ever asks for my SSN is the taxman, and I want him to know, so I don't get two tax-bills
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
While I realize that this "article" was meant to be tongue in cheek, I'll say:
Every time you make a credit card purchase, they're supposed to match your signature against the one on the back of your card. Nobody seems to check anymore, so I tried to see how far I could push it with wacky signatures like "Mariah Carey" and "Zeus," which you can read in the original Credit Card Prank.
My signature is basically a W with a line after. I have been told it's "unique". I always reply, "it's fast." Signatures required for credit card purchases are lame. Checking my ID is even worse. I always make sure to be a PITA when they ask for my ID when I pay w/a CC. Paying with plastic is my way around hassle and if they're going to give me one I'm sure to pay them back with some.
I was grocery shopping when I ran into a new type of signature-checking device: the electronic screen. Instead of a flimsy scrap of paper, you now sign your name right into the screen. Finally, I thought, a better way to check our signatures!
For these I usually just put an X through it or a straight line. I always believed that an X was a valid signature. What happens if I'm truly unable to write my signature? I have to sign in that box in order for the signature to take so I do. I've never had a problem with someone questioning it (most are 16 year old kids that just don't give a shit).
Going back to my ID issues w/CC's. My ID has a signature on it (for what reason I have no idea) but in order to get that signature on there you have to be writing for a certain amount of time. I had to write out my entire name (including middle name) in order for it to take. It basically means that the signature on my ID is worthless as I never sign anything like that. Why bother to require it if you aren't going to get a valid signature from me?
If we are basing the validation of the signature to the back of a possibly stolen card don't you think that someone would attempt to at least forge the signature? I would think that would be the case.
The world is ending if people seriously believe that a handwritten signature on the back of a credit card will end theft. Maybe we should all be required to have our signature stored in a national database. That surely will stop the terrorists!
So to answer the question posed in the article title: "Credit card signatures: useless?" I have to answer, completely.
When I lived in Australia, a woman at Commonwealth Bank told me that I could not write "Check Identification" on the back of the card with my signature. I insisted that my signature was there, but I still wanted someoene to check the id of the card holder. She was adamant about it. I asked for her manager who was also adamant. Why were they? Because there was no rule or code of conduct which said it "IS OK" to do this. So thereby it must not be done.
literally. I just put a line through. That's my signature.
Signatures are pretty easy to forge... especially to an untrained eye.
So I keep my "real signature" for important stuff. Some waiter doesn't need my signature. They charge regardless.
I'm asked all the time to show my ID by various cashiers when I use my credit card in a store and it's a bit annoying.
Since the U.S. federal government limits my liability to $50 for someone fraudulently using my credit card, and all of my credit card companies waive even that, I don't care who uses my credit card.
I just had to have one credit card replaced because someone attempted to charge $9,000 worth of "computer equipment" to it while I was on vacation. It was actually the third incident of someone putting fraudulent charges on that card. The funny thing is that even my credit card company didn't care - it was I that insisted on getting new numbers on the card. Which explains why more and more vendors are asking for ID or checking signatures - they're the ones that lose money when fraud happens.
I'm a big tall mofo.
I used to work in the box office at a performing arts center. We took credit card orders all the time, and all of us knew that we had to double-check the signatures. I remember more than one patron being very indignant when I refused to accept a card with "See ID" (or "CID") on the back, or worse yet, no signature at all.
"Can I just sign the card now?"
"I'm sorry, but I have no way of verifying your signature then."
"But nobody else ever cares!"
"I'm afraid that we do."
It's times like that that a boss who backs you up is a very, very helpful thing. (We would still take a different, and signed, credit card from them. We weren't total jerks!)
At my local starkbutts, I bought a pound of coffee and waited for the pen. and after an awkward pause, was told by the cashier that no signature was required any longer for purchases under $25...she was not even going to give me anything to sign.
I did not feel comforted by that...my stolen wallets have always been used to by gas because of the no-signature-pay-at-the-pump option. anyone else encountered this?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
I figured this out when I got my first credit card. If you sign your card, they will never look closely enough at it.
A friend of mine told me that writing "See Identification" in the signature block on a card would work. It sometimes did, but even then merchants would "compare" my signature and OK it. I tried writing "SEE IDENTIFICATION" in large letters with a black Sharpie. Worked better, but not entirely.
I finally came up with a permanent fix, that has yet to fail me:
When I get a new credit card, on the back Signature area I take a black Sharpie and draw X's over the entire signature area. That forces the clerk to ask for ID. It works EVERY TIME. The only time it hasn't worked is when the clerk doesn't bother checking, but there's little you can do about that other than make a scene or report them to their manager. Besides, in some places (maybe all) a signature is not required for purchases $20.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
If I were running the credit card companies, I would hold the vendors responsible for any loss due to fraud that was a result of their NOT checking signatures and ID's.
THAT would put a stop to that.
Instead of signing the back of his credit cards, my dad writes "Ask for photo ID". If they don't, he asks them calmly if the signatures match. If the cashier says yes, he asks to talk to their supervisor. He doesn't make a big fuss out of it most of the time, and tends to joke around with the cashiers more than make them feel bad, but it gets his point across. He also praises those cashiers that do actually ask for photo ID.
I like it because it has the net effect of making cashiers more likely to check ALL signatures, not just his.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Even worse is that, now, most DMVs make you sign your identification card digitally (like you do with your UPS deliveries). What's the problem with this? Well, when I signed mine at the DMV in 2000, they said "sorry, that isn't valid - sign again".
"What the hell are you talking about? Of course that's valid. That's how I sign my name."
They said that you can't sign your name with any squiggles or crossing lines. My name has a line from the first letter of my last name that slashes through the top of the other letters in my last name. They said that was not valid. So I had to sign it again, without it.
Now, how is that a big problem? Try signing for something where they require checking the signature on your photo identification. I've had people say "have you changed your signature recently?". I even had to sit at my own bank for half an hour once, while they worked out how to deal with my signature not matching - exactly - that on my card.
In other words, I have to sign my signature like the one on my identification card. But the one on my card is not my valid signature, because that's not how I sign things - nor have I ever in my entire life.
A few years back a thief broke into our van while we were at the beach with my parents. We didn't notice the theft until later that afternoon(only the credit cards were stolen). On one card the crooks racked up nearly $15K in less than 15 minutes at Dillards. We met with the Dillards manager the next day only to be told that their corporate policy it to not check ID or validate the signature.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I was standing in a supermarket checkout line in Cambridge in the UK once and this pretty festy looking homeless dude is in front of me with a 6 pack of Tennents Super Strength lager. Anyway he whips out this busted up debit card, all scratched and bent, obviously stolen or found. The pimply checkout chick just takes the card and incredulously turns to the bum and asks him if he would like any cash out with his purchase. In the UK you don't have to type in a pin to get cash out with purchases at the supermarket you just have to sign and well...... You should have seen the guys eyes light up. It was going to be his lucky day. "50 pounds please"
The cashier then takes the card and swipes it. Unfortunately for the alkie bum the card was too damaged and wouldn't swipe through the machine correctly. If he had been a bit luckier he would have easily made off with 50 quid and a 6 pack of lager. What was really astounding was the robotic attitude of the checkout chick to the obvious scam. She would have happily handed over that 50 quid if the card had swiped.
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
Amex cards say right on them that they are not transferrable. This saved my butt a few years ago.
My card was due to expire, and my new card hadn't shown up yet. About the time I was starting to wonder I had a call from American Express. Had I received my card? No. Did I live alone? Yes. And a bunch more such questions.
It turned out that somebody had stolen my card from the mail and had gone on a shopping spree. I asked, very specifically, what my liability was, and they said zero, because the merchants hadn't verified the identity of the person who had used the card, and it was abundantly obvious that the name on the card and the person using it didn't match.
My bill was interesting that month. About 20 pages of charges, then 20 more pages of refunds for fraudulent charges.
...laura
As others have noted, if you read the card holder agreement, the signature on the card accepts the terms of the that agreement. If you read your receipt, the signature on the receipt signifies that you agree to pay the retailer the sum charged. I do not think authentication is mentioned anywhere. So, this is my problem with credit cards and debit cards used as credit cards: there is no authentication at the time of purchase. I would like to see broad deployment of "smart" credit cards in the US. I am not a cryptographer, but I think a credit card purchase should depend on at least the following: the holder knowing a secret (PIN?), the card knowing a separate secret, the card issuer knowing a third secret, and an algorithm that ties the secrets together. That way, there is some hope of proving that the relationship between the three entities is valid at purchase time. The current system only works, because there is such massive indemnification (no responsibility for unauthorized purchases over 50.00). The indemnification does not keep fraud down; it only foists the cost of fraud onto the retailers who then raise their prices to cover themselves.
.02.
My
-ghostis
Computer Science is all about trying to find the right wrench to bang in the right screw. -T.Cumbo?
When Ninja Gaiden came out for the XBox, I headed over to the local Wal-Mart to grab me a copy. Taking it over to the register, the upitty cashier first demanded proof that I was 17 (I was 21 at the time and have always appeared older for my age. Example: At my sister's 15th birthday dinner, when I was 13, the waitress handed me the wine list.). Upon being begrudgingly satisfied by my driver's license, we went through the purchase. When I handed him the receipt, he literally took the credit card back out of my hand and compared my signature on the back to my signature on the receipt. "Ummmm...ok, I guess it's close enough. But try to do it better next time or I won't sell it to you."
It's the closest I've ever come to outright decking a store employee. Jump through hoops to get your signature checked? Nah, just find the newly promoted manager at Hell*Mart.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
But what if you sign your own name? ANd the store still accepts it, is it fraud too then?
Personally, I do not believe it is fraud. I have been asked several times to go to a store and purchase something for people I know. I bring their credit card to the store and make the purchase. I sign the receipt with my name. One time at Circuit City, I was asked why the signature did not match, so I explained the situation - that the card did not belong to me and I was making a purchase for the person named on the card. The cashier nodded and completed the purchase.
I've never had trouble doing this... but I am curious which criminal charges would be brought if it was a thief authorized to make those purchases.