Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: credit card crime query Message-ID: <3433@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Sun, 4-Mar-84 03:01:26 EST Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3433 Posted: Sun Mar 4 03:01:26 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 4-Mar-84 04:50:00 EST References: <1068@uw-june> Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 33 ~| From: kirkg@uw-june (Kirk Glerum) ~| I have a VISA card, and I'm wondering why no one's ever bought a VCR or ~| something with it by phone. Every time I use the silly thing, I'm letting ~| the sales clerk get ahold of my name, my card number, and its expiration date, ~| which coincidentally are the exact things needed to buy something via those ~| 800 numbers. Now I suppose that if someone were to rack up a few grand on me, ~| I could perhaps find out the address the gear's been sent to, but they could ~| have moved or something. My question is: why doesn't this stuff happen all ~| the time? Finally, my card's one of those damn gold ones (of which none of ~| its supposed advantages has ever been apparent - they still look me up in their ~| stupid books or call some stupid number), which would make me a more likely ~| target. Is this a reasonable paranoia? You don't have to be concerned; without your signature, the credit grantor (the bank) won't get very far in trying to get money from you for something you didn't pay for. If the goods were actually shipped to your address, of course, the bank has much more of a case. The vendors and banks, who are the ones really at risk of this kind of fraud, have the protection (in most cases) of an address to go after. Also, I believe the vendor may be able to check with VISA that the address they are sending the product to is the one on the card (please correct me on this, anyone who knows for sure). If you think about who you're giving your card number to, the chances of *your* card being picked for fraud are rather low. Those same clerks gets hundreds of such numbers every day, so the chances of a dishonest one choosing yours are rather low. Dave Sherman Toronto -- {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave