[LINK] Consumer Credit-Card Risks

[Steven Clark]

On 13/01/2010 11:57 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> But wouldn't this protection only be the case if there were no 
> magstripe that included the 'same' info as the chip? What I'm getting 
> at is that the magstripe is still needed as long as the chip readers 
> aren't ubiquitous.
>   

the chips are capable of encoding more information than the stripes.

even if the chip readers are commonplace, an alternative mechanism is
needed for (a) times when the 'system is down', (b) provide some kind of
opportunity to double check that the chip presented actually matches the
associated card (no need to circumvent clone protection if you can
transplant legitimate chips onto fake cards), (c) afford some
opportunity to challenge the identity of the person presenting. [this is
almost never done. i've used cards issued to females without even a
moments pause from the cashier.]

> Re the no sign use of cards, I have found something that may be an 
> example at Melbourne Airport. Supposedly you can put your credit card 
> in when you enter and then when you exit to have the payment 
> automatically deducted when you leave instead of using a separate pay 
> station box at the terminal or before leaving the carpark.
>   

this kind of thing is becoming more common where one-off, low-value
transactions occur.

-- 
Steven//