From: jamiel@sybase.com (Jamie Lawrence)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 94 10:23:38 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Mastercard, Visa, Access, Barclaycard, Amex, JCB ...
Message-ID: <9407071723.AB05853@ralph.sybgate.sybase.com>
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At  9:24 AM 07/07/94 -0400, Richard Martin wrote:

>   I worked a few years in a pharmacy (credentials established) and so
>noticed that most customers will take it as a personal affront if anything
>more than this cursory attention is paid to their credit card. It's a
>North American phenomenon I can attest to, though whether it's much
>different from European attitudes I cannot judge until I work retail
>on the other side of the pond. (Read, hopefully never. Retail, that is. I
>would like to work in Europe at some point. But I'd rather not be selling
>Aspirin.)

A lot of people can ger really bitchy about 'not being trusted'. In
the hotel I used to work in, if I even asked people to sign the back
of an unsigned card they'd fly off the handle. "Sir, I *am* the acting
manager..."

>   Out of some interest, what do the "swipe" card verification systems
>do? How much information do they read from the card and pass down the
>telephone line? How much information would a tap of such a transmission
>reveal?

At the least, they reveal card number, expiration date, transaction
location, amount of purchase and (obviously) time of purchase. I suppose
more could be on the card, but I am not sure what good that would be
(if you have card number, any credit card company is gonna have much
more data on you than will fit on a magnetic strip).

I do wonder how many newer cash registers track purchase -> card number
records, but I doubt this does to card issuers (well, at least not for
free). But this discussion has less and less to do with crypto...


-j
--
"Blah Blah Blah"
___________________________________________________________________
Jamie Lawrence                                  <jamiel@sybase.com>