Re: Dear Linkedin,

[valdis.kletnieks () vt edu]

On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:29:46 -0700, Owen DeLong said:
> It is far preferable for the merchant to request ID and verify that the
> signature matches the ID _AND_ the picture in the ID matches the customer.

Maybe from the anti-fraud standpoint, but not necessarily from the merchant's viewpoint.

It's only better if nobody's standing in line.  If matching the ID and
signature and picture reduces fraud from 4% to 3%, but increases the time to
serve the customer by 5%, you're losing money due to fewer sales/hour.

And the local supermarket can save a *whole* bunch of money if they can get me
to scan my own stuff and pay with a debit card with minimal/no interaction with
the staff.  Sure, might be a bit higher fraud rate, but being able to run 4
almost-unattended checkout lines more than covers it. Figure a warm body costs
$8/hour - as long as the added fraud is under $32/hour, they're coming out ahead.

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