From: alano@teleport.com (Alan Olsen)
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 94 20:51:16 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: CreditCard info
Message-ID: <199408100351.UAA09774@teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>
> An interesting sideline -
>  I ran into an interesting situation at a local video rental place 
>yesterday. If you give them your credit card number they charge you .25 
>less a tape to rent it(2.75 compared to 3.00) Your number goes into their 
>customer databse.
>
>  I laughed, and said i'd rather pay the .25 a tape than take the chance 
>of some part-time HS kid getting ahold of my CC number.
>
>  It's unbelieveable (to me anyway) that people would give this kind of 
>information out and trust that it can't be abused. It's bad enough that 
>we're asked to hand out our SS number for everything.
>

There are businesses that are just as clueless.  I work for a mailing 
company that gets credit card orders from a telemarketing firm.  All of the 
information that I would need to commit major credit card fraud flows across 
my computer every morning.  (I actaully do the processing via computer to 
the bank.  The bank program was written in Microsoft Basic by someone in 
California.)  The company I work for wanted to print ALL of the credit card 
information on the packslips.  This means that anyone along the production 
line could have taken that information and done with it what he/she will.  
The information is not stored in any sort of encrypted form on the computer. 
 Anyone who has access to the system and the least amount of knowlege could 
get to it.

Now you know why I do not have any credit cards.
/========================================================================\
|"I would call him a Beastialic Sadomasochistic   | alano@teleport.com   |
|Necrophile but that would be beating a dead      | Disclaimer:          |
|horse." -- Teriyaki (What's up Tiger Lily?)      | As if anyone cares!  |
\========================================================================/