Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
Having started this thing off, I would like to mention the apparent opportunities there are for card dodginess before they even reach us - those envelopes that arrive with your new/replacement cards, that are plainly carrying new/replacement cards ? The address on the rear, the type of envelope, the fact you can feel them inside .....
Is this a security risk, or is the system so good it wouldn't matter if someone helped themselves to some ?
|
Generally speaking, the only people with ready access to that mail are the post office employees, who are, generally speaking, not going to risk years in prison for a credit card. (And they'd get far more years of prison for stealing mail than they would for stealing the credit card.) Postal inspectors have a fearsome reputation[1], and it seems to help.
Plus, the card generally has to be activated before it can be used. This is usually done by phone, and when you call in to do so, they can tell what number you're calling from. Not by caller ID (which is trivial to fake), but by AIN, which is billing information that is very difficult to fake. If you call from your home phone, it's usually pretty simple. If you call from somewhere else, there's generally an elaborate verification process involving questions that in theory only you would know the answer to.
In practice, it does happen, but not often enough that the banks have considered it a problem. So far.