<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pointman:
Fraud is starting to effect quite a few industries including credit and insurance. To keep these things affordable, what else can they do?
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Merchants should CHECK THE SIGNATURE at the time of transaction. This should be enough to show a merchant that you are who you say you are. The credit card should establish your "credit". THat's what it's for.</font>
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what else can they do? they can stop making it so darn easy for anyone to get credit, for starters. the credit industry is hooked on loading consumers up with debt. for pete's sake the average american household has $8000 of revolving debt! why, because credit companies won't survive on paying customers. yet paying customers like myself are the exact ones who pay for the less credit worthy customers.
as for checking signatures, good luck. my CO chase visa has "Ask for ID" written in the signature box. Yet I don't get asked for it more than half the time. heck, the US post office told me that they wouldn't accept the card because of it, even tho i had my ID! the merchant bears no responsibility for verifing customer identity. instead of weeding out the bad customer, they want to punish the good customer.
i'm the traveller who flys 80000 miles a year, yet i'm the one getting my bags rifled thru. i'm not the one stealing rental cars, yet i have to leave a thumbprint. i pay off my credit card every month, yet i can't get any service when i need it. anybody outside of las vegas thinks i'm a drug dealer when i pay cash for anything over $20, it seems.
and now you are saying that i should expect and accept having to leave a DNA sample for even the simplest transactions? if leaving a thumbprint with a private company in order to rent a car isn't enough to make you draw a line in the sand, just what is?