With the idea of safeguarding their credit and protecting themselves from identity theft, some people are not signing their credit cards. Instead, there is a note there for the store clerk to ask for identification. This may not be a good idea - and may work to the identity thief’s benefit:

“…officials at Visa and MasterCard say unsigned cards are not only invalid, businesses should not accept them for purchases. And a card without the owner’s autograph may actually be exposing the cardholder to fraud - and saddling the merchant who accepts it with the liability.

“We cannot control what a consumer chooses to do,” MasterCard spokesman Chris Harrall said. “We don’t advise them to write ‘See ID’ on the signature panel, since one of the easiest forms of identification to fabricate are personal IDs.”"

link: See ID? Don’t do it!

It seems that the idea of authentication is correct. It is the methodology that is not sound. The issuers of credit cards are focused on authentication, all along the system. The point of sale is just one weak point. As evidenced by the many reports of data breaches, there are a multitude of access points that need to be protected. So, it is still in your best interest to sign that credit card.

Catherine Forsythe

Tags: credit card, security, identity theft, authentication, data breaches