[Gllug] credit cards - chip and pin

Peter Childs blue.dragon at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Apr 29 07:39:24 UTC 2004



On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 john at sinodun.org.uk wrote:

> [snip]
> > I have just been hit with a substantial Hotel Bill from a hotel in
> > Newcastle that I never stayed in, via my switch card.  From
> > conversations with the Hotel it appears that someone checked-in and ran
> > up the bill but told the receptionist that I would be paying on my
> > switch card, which a third-party then provided the details thereof over
> > the telephone.  Voila,  my bank account is debited and the fraudster
> > concerned drives off into the sunset !   No doubt the car reg number
> > that he/she provided to the Hotel was false.
>
> In this case the loss is entirely the Hotel's.  Goods ordered over the
> phone with a card - "customer not present" is the term - must be
> delivered.  If they are collected, as was the case here, the CNP
> transaction must be abandoned and a fresh one done using a physical card
> and signature/PIN.
> If you quote your card number over the phone when making a reservation
> then the you must also present the card at the time of payment.
> > No chip and pin scheme is going to stop this kind of fraud.
>
> True.  If the Hotel's staff don't know what they're allowed to do then
> anything can happen.
> John
>
	Knowing how creditcards work, the creditcard companies should stop
wasting money on new methods to make people "feel" better, and work on
methods with some methods with good scientific grounding.
	Like for example actually checking the details when you phone them
to authorize a transaction or removing the method if they can't find the
staff and forsing companies to authomate it (if thats the answer)
	As we have said before Pins are no better and no worse than
signitures. It is just as easy to guess somones pin as it is to fool the
person on the till that you just signed it correctly.

Peter Childs
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