Dear Linkedin,

Sun Jun 10 10:58:56 UTC 2012

> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Barry Shein" <bzs at world.std.com>
> 
> > A friend would print in block letters in the sig area of his credit
> > cards "ASK FOR PHOTO ID". He said that almost always cashiers et al
> > would give a cursory glance like they were checking his signature and
> > say thank you and hand him back his card.
> 
> This seems like an altogether excellent time to haul out *this* old
> chestnut:
> 
>   http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/
> 
> FWIW, My cards have always said SEE ID, and I get about a 40% or so hit
> rate on that.  It's been odd recently, cause I sometimes forget, and the
> privacy reflex kicks in and makes me want to say "Why??"  :-)

If your card is not signed, your card is invalid and should not be 
accepted by any merchant.

http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/MerchantAcceptanceGuide_Manual.pdf

Page 8-2; "Unsigned Credit Cards".  VISA has similar requirements.

Writing "SEE ID" in the signature panel primarily makes your card invalid
*unless* your signature is also present.

One of the design goals of the V/MC system is that a cardholder is not
supposed to need anything other than their card and the ability to sign.
The comparison of the signature provided to the card signature is 
supposed to be one of the primary ways to validate a cardholder, but of
course these days, most vendors are lazy and don't.

In fact, one of my favorite abusive merchant practices, trying to require
ID, is expressly prohibited:

http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/BM-Entire_Manual_public.pdf

Page 5-14, sec. 5.8.4, "Additional Cardholder Identification".

They're allowed to ask, you're allowed to refuse, and absent a good
reason, they're not allowed to refuse your transaction.  Now, if your
signature doesn't match or something else is particularly fishy, yes,
then they should require it, but they cannot require it by default for
all transactions they process.

That and a "minimum charge" are among the two most common merchant
violations I see.

For MasterCard violations, report them!

http://www.mastercard.us/support/merchant-violations.html

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.