October 08, 2002
Credit card company stupidity

I use my credit card company's (who shall remain un-named to protect the stupid) online bill payment system. Went to make a payment today and they added additional security.. Now not only do I have to provide them the last four digits of my social security number when making a payment, but now they also request my mother's maiden last name as well.

How utterly ridiculous.. I know.. this is just in case someone hacked into my account and wants to pay it off for me.. right? Gee.. god forbid something like that should happen..

To access my statement online all I needed was my credit card number and last four digits of my social security number.. wouldn't you think this is the point at which they would like additional security? Furthermore.. if I need the number to access the statement.. what else are they protecting my account from? Obviously someone already has the most valuable commodity.. as in the number itself, if they got this far.

Posted October 08, 2002 01:02 PM in Geek Stuff
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Comments
On October 8, 2002 01:50 PM jan added:

heheheh.
yeah, my bank did the same thing. Asked for mothers maiden name, and since I had the Czech language fonts enabled on my computer, I gave it them...in all it's Czech glory: 10 characters, with plenty of accents, hooks, and crannies.
Got a nice error message that their new security system couldn't read the fonts. LOL!
(oh, sorry, "laugh out loud")

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On October 8, 2002 05:09 PM Steve added:

If I were a crook, perhaps I'd pay off your card from your checking account so I could get another cash advance?

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On October 8, 2002 06:10 PM naladahc added:

There is nothing better than a high quality 10 to 15 letter eastern european last name.

I find great happiness when the telemarketers call and try to pronounce Janiszewski. It is so simple and yet they keep adding vowels and sounds that aren't there.

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On October 8, 2002 08:05 PM Steve added:

Said by Kasia:request my mother's maiden last name as wellAs opposed to your mother's maiden first name? :-)

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On October 8, 2002 11:14 PM kasia added:

Steve, go update your weblog...

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On October 9, 2002 10:03 AM s added:

xxxxxx

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On October 11, 2002 10:28 AM havoc added:

Apparently "normal" people don't think about security. Banks, apparently, don't think about information security at all. Only crackers (bad) and hackers (percieved as bad) think about security. Hackers think about how to break things in order to make them less breakable. Unfortunately, pointing out the "breakability" of someone's information systems often results in a call to the FBI.

Send me your credit card info, social security number, mother's maden name, and I'll make a credit card payment for you. (wink)

havoc

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On November 23, 2002 09:06 AM leszek added:

o jaka Kasie tu chodzi ??

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