To sign or not to sign? That is the Credit Card Fraud question?

Do you sign the back of your credit card? I don't. Really, there's no real reason for the signature anymore. Case in point, I was travelling back home from Dallas yesterday, and I stopped at a Wendy's in Ennis, Texas to grab some lunch. I walk to the counter, and the cashier's asked, "Will you be dining in today?" All right, you have just annoyed me, dude. This isn't the Four Seasons, so drop the fakeness.

Anyway, I gave the guy my order, and then handed him my credit card for payment. He looked at the back of the card to check my signature (which almost never happens - this plays to the point I am making), and he saw that I have no signature on the card. Instead, I write on my card "Check TX Driver's License". So he asked for my ID, and I showed it to him.

After he had swiped the card and handed it back to me, he asked, "Might I suggest that you sign your card?" Again, the fakeness of this guy was practically making me want to jump the counter and smack him (I have not had much sleep this week). Not to mention that the last thing I want is unsolicited advice from some snot-nose college freshman sitting behind a counter at a fast-food joint when I have had less than five hours of sleep in the last two days. I kind of growled to him that it made no sense to do this since a credit card thief would be able to forge my signature if it was on the back of the card. His response was, "I guarantee you the signature will match if you don't sign the card."

So I growled a little louder and told him that if people do their job like he had, then they will check the signature on the card when I hand it to them, and they will have to check my driver's license to verify that the card is actually mine. His look clearly told me that he had not thought the issue all the way through, and I think my demeanor at that point shut him up as well.

But of course, this is the point and the real reason I don't sign my cards. It is not effective as a security measure. Most people don't check the card (as much as this twerp annoyed me, at least he was doing his job). Most fast food joints don't even need a signature as long as it is under $20. And when was the last time you had to sign a credit card receipt at a gas station? So why even have the signature there in the first place? It really serves no purpose.

So today, out of curiosity, I decided to do some Googling on the issue. The first thing I found was from this article. Here's an excerpt:

So, the question is: is this the correct advice to reduce credit card fraud? Should you -- or should you not -- sign your credit cards?

 

To answer this question, we called the fraud departments at MasterCard, Visa and American Express.

 

All three advised that you definitely SHOULD sign your card.

 

MasterCard told us that this idea -- not to sign your card -- is an urban legend that sounds sensible, but is not a good idea.

 

American Express warned us that merchants are not supposed to accept your credit cards if they aren't signed. Visa agreed -- in fact, they said that the merchant is instructed to not finish the transaction until you sign your card!

 

So, not signing your credit card is an example of a very popular urban legend that is false. And we stand by our original advice -- sign your credit cards immediately when you receive them.

Ummmm, so you went to credit card companies to try to prove this is a scam, and they basically said "it's not a good idea", but they gave you NO supporting evidence to prove the point, and you just took them at their word? Interesting. Did you think to ask a security expert their advice? Nope.

Then I found the following comments intersting from this article:

The reason is that the signature isn't there solely so that store employees can verify who you are. Instead, your signature on the back of the card also demonstrates that you've agreed to the terms of the contract with the credit card company. If the card isn't signed, then technically you're never entered into a legal agreement with Visa, Mastercard, or whomever, and you shouldn't be using the card.

 

So I guess I've been the victim of misinformation. I wonder how many other people are wandering around with "SEE ID" on the back of their cards, arguing with all the poor cashiers who tell them that the cards have to be signed?

First, to answer your question, not many, because almost no one checks the cards! Second, why were you the victim of misinformation? If people did check the signatures, then it makes total sense NOT to have the signature on there for people to forge. And third, credit card companies can easily say that activating the card over the phone or the web is tacit agreement to the terms. I would have no problem with that.

Of course, one could argue that if the signature is not effective, it doesn't really matter if yoou sign or not. However, being a proponent of layered security, I am still not going to sign just in case a thief steals my card and happens to run across another conscientious (but annoying) Wendy's cashier.