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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."
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!
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.
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.
I was a clerk in a video store and a cashier at a department store while working my way through school. I would check all Credit Card signatures. Credit cards were required for membership at the video store, most people would pay cash for the rentals.
I confiscated 3 or 4 cards and destroyed them while a cashier after getting "Please Call" back instead of an authorization.
I never caught a bad signature (a couple missing signatures, I would check the Driver's license and look at that signature and photo and tell the person to sign the card later)
I would occasionally get a customer that did not want me to bother checking signatures and one guy belittled me while I was checking. "Oh, now you are a handwriting expert. Oh, how secure." etc etc.
I told him it was better for him that I at least try to catch forgers.
Not really useful to the discussion but that guy still bugs me when I think about it. I was trying to protect his credit not inconvenience him. No wonder clerks don't bother to check.
On the PIN number thing, I'm tempted to put a small slip of paper in my wallet, with "0619" written on it. Anyone stealing the wallet may well try it is my PIN, and it won't work. So they turn it upside down (becomes "6190"), and it still doesn't work. If I'm really lucky, they turn it back the other way, try one more time, and the card is now locked.