Secure Credit Card Signatures

I found this hilarious account of this fellow named John Hargrave at Zug (via Coyoteblog). This site specializes in pranks. In this prank, John forges various signatures on credit card receipts to see if the clerks notice. They never do. The point is that the signature doesn’t offer any protection because the vendor will get his money whether the card is used fairly or fraudulently.

Last month, I suggested (in Secure Credit Cards) that we should replace the signature on the credit card with a 12-digit one-time-use activation number. Zug’s prank illustrates why we need to go to the numerical signature.