Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
I have asked this before. Is there anybody out there who thinks signature verification provides one iota of extra security for a credit card purchase? Are the 16 year old clerks commonly employed throughout the world going to raise a fuss about a signature? Especially for small purchases? I know it is common practice in the UK, for example, to always go though the pretense of checking the signature but does anybody think that will keep fraud from occurring Of course, I must admit we are very cavalier about this in the USA. Just yesterday, I was in a supermarket and the customer in front of me bought over $300 worth of groceries; swiped het card, put it back in her wallet and nobody checked the signature (this particular supermarket like most here doesn't even bother with signatures for amounts under $50). But I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over it because as I've said once the emv issue is resolved here, the emphasis for credit card fraud will turn to online purchases just mark my words.
I think you completely miss the point of checking signatures.
Merchants in the UK think that:
1) Cards without chips are completely insecure and should not be trusted.
2) Anything other than PIN is insecure and should not be trusted.
To try and make up for that, they make use of
ALL of the security features that cards have when there is no chip, no PIN or both. Yes, that means checking signatures - even if it isn't all that effective.
If they check the signature properly and retain receipts, then they should be covered if there is any fraud on a card without a Chip and/or PIN.
IMO the US has everything totally backwards - like in that example you give. The card has features like holograms and security codes on it that the store should be checking to see if they're genuine. By allowing the cardholder to swipe the card themselves they are totally bypassing all of those security features. It would be like letting customers put cash in the till themselves - without checking to see if it's counterfeit or if it's simply a piece of green paper with $10 written on it in crayon.