-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Joe Buck writes: <snip>
Your credit card number, expiration date, etc, are continually being revealed to minimum-wage clerks all the time, unless you never use the card. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; it makes no sense to buy an expensive lock when your door has a big enough opening to climb through. Should some bad person get hold of your card number and misuse it, you're not out any money:
I'm not so sure....Checked the fees/interest lately? "There ain't no such thing as a free credit card theft." [Apologies to Milton & Rose Friedman.] ;)
you just tell the card company "I didn't buy that". Since there's so much tracing in the system, if you buy a physical something with a stolen credit card number it can usually be traced to you (who'd they ship the package to?).
They only *sometimes* find the person/loot.
It's not clear to me that *any* encryption is really essential if the only purpose is to protect credit card #'s from snoopers.
OK, but I had an idea a number of years ago. It's not too new, either, and considering the BILLION$ in credit-card fraud, I think the credit card companies could implement it with little trouble at every site the cards are used. Why not PIN numbers. Banks and their customers are already used to them, they could be entered over the phone (I know, not too secure) or in person, and considering the dollar ammount of the current fraud, they would be cheap (I think). [There is probably a flaw in my idea, but I haven't found it.] <snip>
Q: Of the 20,000 credit card #'s stolen from Netcom's computer, how many were used to buy things? Answer: not sure, but expect the answer is "zero".
Probably so, but imagine being a Netcom customer (or a Netcom stockholder). Not all of the costs of crime are monetary. JMR -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh iQCVAwUBMDKdH21lp8bpvW01AQGBTwP/VQ7BNPAAna6ba3avp+y9us0E5hhpUGdJ 6shHmZjPDWrSZz9aGzq5xhkQzSKdlLy/lFePt8acFBbDaGnK8wzAvoo1S69mr4bA AUJ+IsI5j/Ctvic0RGbiIlfy+thXna6iwTgDovBB7u311+UMCgMg0A89onIjWCQQ jKN2sSimEHg= =0TzV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Jim Ray Don't investigate Mena, Arkansas and contra-coke. Embarrassment is a threat to national security... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Key id. # E9BD6D35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support the Phil Zimmermann (Author of PGP) Legal Defense Fund! email: zldf@clark.net or visit http://www.netresponse.com/zldf ________________________________________________________________________