We're in NY - and yes, our merchant agreements prohibit us from asking the customer for anything except their signature for transactions with card present.

We are required to match the sigs - and if they match (or if they are so close that a regular person couldn't tell), we are protected from chargebacks.

Most people don't realize that EXECPT for in-person, card present transactions, MERCHANTS are the ones ultimately responsible for making good on fraud. Not the banks... Internet/Mail/Phone order credit card fraud is huge - and it's the merchants that are paying the price.

If you encounter gun-shy merchants, it's because we're being burned every day.

I will never ask a cusotmer for ID (I can't) - but if the customer calls and asks me to ship the merch, i'll do an address verification - and only ship to either the billing address, or an approved ship-to address that the customer has established with their credit card. If we have proof of delivery to the customer's address, it's unlikely to be fraud. This is why were are a little hesitant to ship out of the country to customers not known to us, since we can't track it as well (and AVS is next to impossible in many countries).

I have numerous addresses on file with AMEX and my major credit cards, so that I can do ship-to transactions while on the road. This is not an invasion of my privacy, rather a preventative measure to simplify my life. Trust me, chasing this stuff down is a PITA.

But we're off track here... just wanted to clarify this point.

cpd