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Comment by jermaustin1 | Hacker News Reader

Same here. I'm in the US. I actually thought Credit/Debit cards had to have YOUR "full" name on them.

My wife and I share MANY accounts, and none of our cards have a "shared" name on it.

The only information sent to the card processor is the swipe (number expiration date) and sometimes the zip code and verification code on the back (if entered by hand).

When my wife worked retail (20+ years ago), she had to verify the name on the card with the name on the machine with the name on their ID. They caught a decent number where the machine had a different name pop up than the card showed. And WAY more when comparing both to their ID.

They called her "The Bulldog" because of how vigilant she was about it. That store lead the region in CC Fraud. But soon they were the bottom of the region in shrink and loss prevention.

I worked retail for a bit in high school. I tried to check card vs ID name for about a week before the manager told me to cut that shit out - too many wives, kids, etc using "dad's" card (this was 1994, so it was almost exclusively dad's card - I imagine that's changed in the last 30 years).

Requiring additional ID for low-value credit card transactions is not necessarily good security from a customer standpoint, as it increases exposure to identity theft by store employees to reduce the relatively minor risk of small, easily reversible fraudulent transactions.

Is a card present transaction generally "easily reversible"?

At least in my experience the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe - I had access to a track 3 writer and had some fun copying my credit card info onto my driver license and swiping that.

> the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe.

It is (or was last time I played with card readers). But a person would sometimes use a stolen card with their name on the physical card so it matched their ID.

I guess people weren't updating it digitally? Maybe it was easier to just clone a card onto a card you already have?

> The only information sent to the card processor is the swipe (number expiration date) and sometimes the zip code and verification code on the back (if entered by hand).

For credit cards? No, that's not necessarily true.

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