Credit Cards

[andysocial]

Originally published at BunkBlog. You can comment here or there.

A few credit card companies sent me updated cards in the past month, including one which didn’t expire for another two years.  Makes me wonder if the credit companies know something I don’t.

Anyway, all these credit cards require activation, including my ATM card. The activation procedure for one is simple: call the number, they hit the caller ID database and say, “Thank you for calling. Your card is now activated.” Other companies require you to type in the credit card number in full, others the last few digits of your Social Security Number (which is illegal to use as an identification number), etc.  Do only a very few companies know what Caller ID is?  And what’s with the plethora of calls trying to get me to buy the oh-so-useful credit insurance crap lately? Leave me alone!

This has been your random surreal moment of the day.  Please pull through.

Comments

[dantheserene.livejournal.com]

Caller ID spoofing gear is now commercially available. While it is better than nothing against casual threates, it is completely useless as an authentication mechanism against even moderately technical thieves.

[andysocial]

Do you have to be right all the time?

OK, at least they could do a first-round correlation with the phone number, and then a verification that is something other than the credit card number. After all, if you swiped the credit card from my mailbox and knew my phone number, how is it any more secure to ask for the credit card number from the card you have in your hand, along with the phone number which could be spoofed? Ask some security question UNRELATED to the specific mailing, maybe.

[daddygod.livejournal.com]

I got one of those new card to replace one that didn't expire until 09 and wondered what the hell was going on myself until I read the insert.

It said that the card I had was sent with a new type of swipe stripe and many retailers had been having problems with their machines not reading it, so they sent a replacement with the old black stripe for less hassle on my end. I looked at the first card and sure enough the stripe was silver with holographic images on it, and the second was the old boring black.

Things that make you go "Hmm."

[andysocial]

Good possibility. Of course, I've shredded the obsolete cards, so I can't check. The new ATM card has the shiny magstrip with the hologram on it, though; it's been working so far.