[Gllug] how safe is linux against identity thief

[- Tethys]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 4:37 PM, Iain M Conochie <iain at shihad.org> wrote:

> Surely you mean the retailer? There is no WAY that I can he held
> liable for the mis-use of my card unless i am culpable

No, he means the customer. It all comes down to non-repudiation,
a concept the banks appear to have forgotted about entirely[1].

Previously, if I disputed a transaction where the cardholder was present,
I could ask the bank to show my signature for the purchase, and ask for
them to compare it to the approved copy of my signature that they had
on file. If I dispute a transaction with a C&P card, the bank says
"but a valid PIN was used, therefore it must have been you", and I
have no comeback to that, particularly as they have publicly stated
that allowing anyone else to learn of your PIN constitutes culpability.

Tet

[1] As further proof of this, I learned recently that direct debits no
    longer need a signed mandate from me. The bank will just pay the
    money out of my account if a suitable party asks for it, trusting
    them to have acquired authorization from me beforehand. The mind
    boggles...

-- 
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to
understand the exponential function -- Albert Bartlett
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