OT Has anyone in the group ever had to verify your signature on a credit card receipt?

[Metspitzer]

If someone used your card without your permission, would that not already be fraud? Just wonder how often a signature dispute comes up.

[Charlie]

One time only. On a European trip I had a Visa card stolen. I called the issuing credit union from there. When I got home there was only one charge made the day of the theft that I had not made. The CU had the original slip. I was asked to sign my name five times. They looked at my sig, looked at the credit card slip and said " Ok we will charge it back to the shop that had accepted the card."

By the way, I had gone to the police station (we were leaving that day ) and managed to get a police report. I had it with me when I went to the CU.

I still have that report. It was my souvenir from the Rome police.

Charlie

[Michael Dobony]

I have used someone else's credit card only a few times (4-5 tops) and never had a problem. Even when people check the photo ID they have only checked the photo 4-5 times. I bet I could borrow my son's ID and credit card and not have a problem, even if I write on the card to check photo ID. I had that on my card for about 2 years and NOBODY checked the photo against my face, only compared names.

[Metspitzer]

I am guessing it is more for the clerk to match the front signature with the back, but they are not exactly the CSI type.

I think putting a picture ID would be much more effective. Now a days, you could email a photo to the card company.

[WW]

[mm]

There's a signature on the front?

Maybe they can cancel all those bloody shows adn they can work as clerks.

[mm]

LOL.

In the USA, a signature does not have to be legible or in English or the Latin alphabet. It can be in a foreign alphabet like Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, that no one at the store can read.

This includes your checking account and I'm sure contracts and everything else.

I'll bet the laws that say this encompass using no alphabet, like a smiley face, and that that is legal too. As in the cowboy movies, "Make your mark."

"X" is legal for illiterates and others.

Personally I think it should be remembered and farily reproducible by the signer or he's going to have troubles. :)

[Steve B]

I have LifeLock. On the back of all my cards, I have VERIFY SIGNATURE. If a clerk does NOT verify my signature, I call for the manager, and usually get some very good results. At the least, I get the clerk's attention and teach them something new.

Steve

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, Signature? Been using PIN long time already.

[Art Todesco]

Only once, for me too. Actually, I always sign my credit cards with my full 1st name, middle initial and full last name. However, I sign all credit vouchers and electronic credit units 1st initial only, middle initial and full last name. This gives me a check, if there's a disputed credit charge, by looking at the signature. If it's signed like on the card, it's not me. As I said, only once, a teller sort of complained. A friend of mine signs his credit card with the phrase "ask for identification." He then signs the voucher or machines with his signature. He said no one ever asks for ID, etc. either.

[Don Wiss]

I recently ate at a restaurant that only took credit cards if you also gave them a driver's license. But not to compare the signature. They brought back the license with the card before I signed the check.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Robert Green]

NEVER EVER NEVER EVER let your license or your CC leave your sight. That's when the cards are skimmed by portable scanners and your license quickly photographed by cell phone cameras. Police are forever busting up rings of waitstaff that earn considerable money from criminal gangs. What they really want is your 3 or 4 digit code on the back of your card. I always pay with cash at restaurants. The risk is just too high that someone's going to sell your card data to some criminal gang. Cuts out the infamous double billing scams, too. I always make sure I have a mix of bills too, so that the famous "disappearing waiter" trick isn't pulled on me where they hope you'll just get tired of waiting and leave without your change.

WASHINGTON -- Restaurants in the D.C. metropolitan area are working with Secret Service agents to shut down a credit card-skimming scheme, and authorities said each business was hit from the inside.

Managers at the DuClaw Brewing Company and Pizzeria Uno at the Bowie Town Center in Bowie, Md., Jasper's in Largo, Md., and the Red, Hot and Blue restaurant in Arlington, Va., had no idea their customers were being victimized.

Authorities said a network of waiters working at the four restaurants used a device called a skimmer to swipe customers' credit cards. By using the device, authorities said the waiters were able to capture the customers' credit card numbers as well as other private information about the card owners. Then authorities said that information was used to make illegal purchases.

NEVER EVER EVER let your credit card or license leave your sight.

-- Bobby G.

[notbob]

Geez, and this is old news. I first heard about this practice about

15 yrs ago.

nb

[Steve B]

"Robert Green" wrote

Sorry, I don't want to leave my guests, get up and follow a server through a labyrinthine maze back to the credit card machine. I use LifeLock, plus my VISA allows me to not pay any disputed charge.

Werks fer me.

[Don Wiss]

Yes. One can't go through life worrying about little things. All credit card companies will reverse fraudulent charges. Not to mention that frequent flier miles are nice to get and I stopped carrying coins long ago. Any place where I use cash is in even dollars.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Kurt Ullman]

Me, too. I have absolute faith in the algorithms that they use to ferret out fraudulent claims, largely because they freeze my card at times even when I make the charges. I started calling them to let them know when I was going to Florida since entry into the Sunshine state seems to automatically offend the computers (grin).

[Robert Green]

I meant to write credit card AND license. Sorry. I was in shock that anyone would surrender both documents to a waiter/waitress and let them disappear for a time. (Sorry Don W. - too many years reporting crime have made me *very* paranoid. You're free to take any level of risk you're comfortable with, but there is a possibility you're unaware of how vulnerable the restaurant customer is to skimming.)

Let me ask you this, Steve: Would you let both your driver's license AND your CC leave your sight in a restaurant?

I ask that because in my limited but still substantial experience, restaurants are the absolute NEXUS of lower-than-minimum wage, transient, possibly illegal, possibly ex-felon employees. Add a bar and you've added potential pimping, drug dealing, gambling along with other activities that require money. A high res image of your license is a get-out-of-jail card for an ex-con or squint. They can use your license to convince the police that they are you long enough to escape custody and leave you stuck paying the bill. The criminal bill. But it's quite possible that other people don't see restaurants in quite the same light. (-:

<

[3sheets]

That's because you did not use your own signature. You used someone else's signature. I know this for fact because I saw you sign it using the signature of your neighbor's wife. That's called FRAUD. The police will pick you up in an hour or so. Pack your jail bags.

[Usafretcol]

Read a copy of the merchant's agreement with the cc company. They are forbidden to ask for any ID to use the card. The only requirement is that the card be signed. If not signed, the card is to be considered invalid. Read the agreement for further info.

[Don Wiss]

Thanks. I just filed a complaint at:

Now I don't remember whether the license was just looked at or taken away with the card. This was some months back. I do know I told my luncheon companion that I would not eat there again because of it.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).