Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 25 March 2002
Note: the comments below are the unabridged
submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: Tim For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: ZED Card Readers To quote from the article: "The crazy thing is that they're pitching all this additional security as a benefit to the cardholder -- but it's not. When a stolen card is used to fraudulently purchase stuff on the Net it's not the card-holder who gets stung. Aside from a small amount (usually $50 or so), it's the vendor who ends up out of pocket because the card company normally indemnifies the holder against such fraud." Let me tell you a story. In 2001 I bought a subscription online to a firewall site. They used a company (should I name them?) for their credit-card processing. Now everything was done properly - the site used SSL, full encryption, everything was nice and secure. Then somehow charges for sex sites (including one in which the only language used was Hebrew - anyone here speak Hebrew? 'cos I don't) starting appearing on the card. And they were being made through the same company that was handling the firewall site's business. So, someone in the firewall place or the credit-card company was being a naughty boy. Naturally I put in a disclaimer. Now, as you say above I was charged a small fee, but otherwise got my money back. At the same time I asked the bank to stop processing charges to my card if they came from that processing company. At that point it got really complex. See, the bank flat- out refused to block the company's charges. So I kept making disclaimers and getting my money back. Perhaps the vendors were getting stung for the lost money. Whoop-de- doo. I don't care. I suffered a great deal of pain and frustration - I even had to take time off work beacuse I was so wound up I was just about hitting people. It seemed that every day a new charge - usually over $100 - would appear on my card. The bank people were complete wankers. How is it if your card goes missing they can stop charges to it, but if it's electronic they can't? Explain that one. What ultimately happened - me not having used the card for months - was that I paid off the debt (the small portion that was actually mine) - waited until the disputed stuff had been put through and the balance was zero, and closed the account. Now I haven't seen any charges since (woo-hoo!) but the bank reckons they'll still put through anything for up to five years. Bastards. So, if the ANZ can guarantee that ZED can't be used online without the physical card in the reader (I'd lilke to know how they're going to pull that off) then good on them. Believe me, disputing a charge is not easy. It causes lots of anger and bad feelings, especially if you keep getting hit. So if someone else has to give up the money? That's just fine by me. Doesn't seem crazy at all. From: Mike M For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Zed card/Credit cards/usury Most of this fraud could be done away with by using a international debit card instead of a credit card, But we can not get such in N Z, unlike the U S. I believe the banks do not want us to have international debit cards because they will not make as much money out of us. You can use a credit card as a debit card by having a small credit limit on it say $100.00 max. In this way if you buy a vase on ebay for $500.00 NZD you can put in $400.00 on your card and they can only get that amount of your money. Of course the banks do not want you to do this because they riley on human nature for us to pay interest, in other words the banks are practising usury. With ANZ for instance the minimum credit limit is $1000.00. The National bank on the other hand has a minimum credit limit of $100.00, good on them. It is up to you how small a credit limit you have. Not the banks! The bank my mother uses kept giving her more and more of a credit limit. She is 87 and not quite all there. I paid it off and cut up the card. What a despicable thing to do to a little old lady, these banks have no morels what so ever. Thank god for the Kiwi bank at least they will not take advantage of the old folk.Hit Reload For Latest Comments
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