You are not a cop, you don't need to see my ID!

[Andara Bledin]

Hold on a second.

It's VISA/MC who are left holding the bag if someone fraudulently uses my credit card, not me and not the merchant.

Don't bet on it. My company has eaten charges of at least several thousand dollars a year to credit card fraud. So, yes the merchants take losses on credit card theft. At the very least, they lose the merchandise. The card provider is unlikely to let the merchant keep the money and pay them for the merchandise that was stolen.

But if someone steals your identity and uses it to open credit card accounts, your problems are just beginning.

I bet you a year's pay that your physical ID had nothing to do with your identiy being stolen. Nothing. It takes about $15-$25 to get all of the information you need to steal a person's ID from the internet. $35, if the identity belongs to the current president.

Refusing to show your driver's license during a credit card transaction is being unreasonable and pointlessly paranoid.

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It takes a lot more than just a name and a driver's licnese number to steal somebody's identity. A SSN goes a long way toward taking over somebody's identity and last time I checked a person's SSN did not appear on their drivers license.

So I too believe Auto's identification was not stolen by somebody memorizing his drivers license number or his physical ID, but maybe by somebody who dug his sensitive information out of the trash or something.

And I agree that not showing an ID when asked for it in a credit card transaction is unreasonable and more than a little suspiscious. I'd just void the transaction and send the person on their way.

[myswtghst]

I'm with IPF on this. To me, not being willing to show ID screams something is wrong, which in most cases, it is, so I'd be perfectly comfortable refusing the transaction.

It actually makes me sad, nowadays, going places like Target, where they don't even touch my card to make sure the sig matches, let alone check my ID. The little old man working the gas station at the corner who sees me at least once a week and always converses with me at length still checks my ID, for chrissakes.

I had my credit card information stolen online, and it took a lot of hassle and headache to get the company to remove the charges, which totaled to less than $300. I also had to get rid of that card and get a new CC, which was a pain in and of itself. I'm not trying to make light of Auto's troubles, but it seems to me like not showing a DL at a store is a small thing that makes you feel more secure when all it really is doing is hassling a sales person and being difficult.

[CSR Kim]

It takes a lot more than just a name and a driver's licnese number to steal somebody's identity. A SSN goes a long way toward taking over somebody's identity and last time I checked a person's SSN did not appear on their drivers license.

My SS# is still on my drivers license. I haven't renewed it since I turned 21 though, but I think Missouri now generates a random ID# for you now, whether you want it or not. So when my name changes, I guess I'll have to get used to a new ID#.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, yeah.

Fun fact: A large percentage of stolen identities are just people generating fake SSNs without any information behind them.

My uncle had to fight with the IRS that a 6', pale, red-headed Polish guy was not named Javier Rodriguez. That wasn't the name of the guy who was trying to use my uncles SSN.

And we've had a number of incidents in our area where scummy tax preparers who cater to the non-English speaking southwestern US clientele would take numbers they knew were good (because they had prepared statements for their real owners in previous years) and use them for their illegal alien criminal workers.

^-.-^

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

It takes a lot more than just a name and a driver's licnese number to steal somebody's identity. A SSN goes a long way toward taking over somebody's identity and last time I checked a person's SSN did not appear on their drivers license.

Actually, Mississippi used to (and may still, as far as I know) use people's SSN as their driver's license number.

[Bella_Vixen]

Actually, Mississippi used to (and may still, as far as I know) use people's SSN as their driver's license number.

Utah does. I'll never move there.