How are you dealing with retail merchants who take your credit card and then demand to see a photo ID, usually a driver's license? I'm really getting tired of this again, a problem which is a violation of the credit card merchant agreements. Some of the issues cited are about privacy of the customer and the importance of verifying the signatures on both the card and the sales receipt.
Despite the ease of knowing the many reasons why not to demand a photo ID, and to refuse suspicious writing on a card that says "See ID" or some other such silliness, major retailers and retail outlets are still doing it. When challenged, excuses from employees have included:
Guess what almost all of these employees don't do even after I show them what appears to be a driver's license. Yeah, the signatures, the one thing that is emphasized in the merchant agreements as being very important in preventing fraud. Even after receiving a sales receipt with a fake signature, they do nothing to report the discrepancy, and simply complete the transaction, satisfied that they have verified ID.
I have recently been the victim of identity theft and fraud. In one incident, my credit card was duplicated. The fraudsters were able to obtain a copy of the magnetic stripe and tested it with a $20 purchase. A few minutes later, they came back and attempted two $300 purchases at the same store. Both purchases were flagged and declined, allowing a trace on the suspicious location and opening the possibility of prosecution. I received a phone call from the card company less than 15 minutes later, quickly absolving me and the merchants of further financial responsibility.
A second recent incident involved a fraudster who went to a bank branch and attempted to tap my account. This fraudster was almost caught, but the teller did something stupid. She apparently asked the fraudster for a photo ID because he didn't have the account number, which he showed to her in the form of a driver's license. Instead of looking at the signature on the withdrawal form and noticing that it was nothing like the signature on file for the account, she accepted the driver's license as proof of identity, spilled all of my account information for him to fill out on the form, and then processed the fraudulent withdrawal, leaving it up to me to figure out what happened and report it several weeks later.
I've walked out on many a sale because the store employee insisted that I was in the wrong for refusing to show a photo ID. I've complained about a few of these merchants, but the problem seems to be increasing, while these foolish people behind the counter refuse to follow their merchant agreements by verifying the signatures!
How effective has been your experience complaining to the credit card companies about these incidents of merchants improperly demanding photo ID, often as a substitute for the signature verification?
Despite the ease of knowing the many reasons why not to demand a photo ID, and to refuse suspicious writing on a card that says "See ID" or some other such silliness, major retailers and retail outlets are still doing it. When challenged, excuses from employees have included:
- I need to know who you are.
- The card doesn't have a photo on it.
- It's store policy.
- The manager will tell you the same thing.
- I check everybody.
Guess what almost all of these employees don't do even after I show them what appears to be a driver's license. Yeah, the signatures, the one thing that is emphasized in the merchant agreements as being very important in preventing fraud. Even after receiving a sales receipt with a fake signature, they do nothing to report the discrepancy, and simply complete the transaction, satisfied that they have verified ID.
I have recently been the victim of identity theft and fraud. In one incident, my credit card was duplicated. The fraudsters were able to obtain a copy of the magnetic stripe and tested it with a $20 purchase. A few minutes later, they came back and attempted two $300 purchases at the same store. Both purchases were flagged and declined, allowing a trace on the suspicious location and opening the possibility of prosecution. I received a phone call from the card company less than 15 minutes later, quickly absolving me and the merchants of further financial responsibility.
A second recent incident involved a fraudster who went to a bank branch and attempted to tap my account. This fraudster was almost caught, but the teller did something stupid. She apparently asked the fraudster for a photo ID because he didn't have the account number, which he showed to her in the form of a driver's license. Instead of looking at the signature on the withdrawal form and noticing that it was nothing like the signature on file for the account, she accepted the driver's license as proof of identity, spilled all of my account information for him to fill out on the form, and then processed the fraudulent withdrawal, leaving it up to me to figure out what happened and report it several weeks later.
I've walked out on many a sale because the store employee insisted that I was in the wrong for refusing to show a photo ID. I've complained about a few of these merchants, but the problem seems to be increasing, while these foolish people behind the counter refuse to follow their merchant agreements by verifying the signatures!
How effective has been your experience complaining to the credit card companies about these incidents of merchants improperly demanding photo ID, often as a substitute for the signature verification?
