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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mcnc!xanth!jim
From: jim@xanth.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: Footnote to discussion of cameras in ATMs
Message-ID: <3634@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 07:55:09 EST
Article-I.D.: xanth.3634
Posted: Sat Dec  5 07:55:09 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 03:50:47 EST
References: <5560@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <6252@sunybcs.UUCP> <284@caus-dp.UUCP> <753@auscso.UUCP> <6140@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: jim@xanth.UUCP (Jim Duncan)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 31

In article <6140@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> jmm@thoth8.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU ()
writes:
>For credit cards, you are only responsible for the first $50 that someone
>who steals your card charges.  From my "Visa(r) account agreement:"  
>
>	If you discover or suspect that the Card or any unused checks are lost
>or stolen, ......
>                                     ......  Your liability for
>unauthorized use occurring before you notify us is limited to $50.
>
>I was under the impression that this was required by law, and that
>this law also applies to ATM cards.
>
>James Moore     ...!ucbvax!leggatt!jmm

No!  This is *not* the case!  In many situations, ATM cards are considered
(and implemented as) debit cards, not credit cards, and as such they are *not*
necessarily protected by the fifty dollar limit of liability.  Some states
have addressed this problem, and implemented statutes to protect the ATM card
holder against unauthorized use of his|her account.  Many banks have
voluntarily adopted policies which protect their customers.

The ATM user is hereby warned to read the fine print on the agreement -- my
bank *does* protect me with the fifty dollar limit *if* I am prompt in
reporting the loss of the card, but there is no guarantee that all banks would
do so.

-- 
 Jim Duncan, Computer Science Dept, Old Dominion Univ, Norfolk VA 23529-0162
 (804)440-3915     INET: jim@xanth.cs.odu.edu    UUCP: ...!sun!xanth!jim
 ---------- Time flies like the wind, but fruit flies like bananas. ---------