Do you ever think about security?

[darxus]

I just got a call from RCN saying my bill payments haven't gone through. They suggested I call back at a number provided by them and give them my credit card info.

In that situation, does it occur to you that you have no evidence that the person you're giving your credit card info to is actually RCN?

I said no, I'll get the number off the web. She said "Well this is a different number." Then I pointed out I have no evidence of who she is, and she said okay. It amazes me that people expect people to be okay with this, because, presumably, people usually are.

Comments

[tisana.livejournal.com]

I'm always amazed at how some folks expect us to just accept that.
I had a less than amusing argument with a Greenpeace rep about just handing my credit card over to some guy in the street with a clipboard, and his argument was that handing my card over at restaurants was about as safe...not a way to convince me he's safe, though. Sheesh.

[beowabbit]

his argument was that handing my card over at restaurants was about as safe...not a way to convince me he's safe, though.

Except that at a restaurant, you have a physical location and a business (with at least enough assets to pay the rent) you can tie the person to. OK, theoretically somebody could walk in off the street and claim to be your server, but the likelihood of them getting away with that for a non-trivial amount of time is pretty small. The likelihood of somebody who falsely claims to be a Greenpeace canvasser getting away with standing on a streetcorner for an hour or so is much higher.

(When I canvassed for Greenpeace a couple of decades ago, a few of the towns required us to wear municipal-government-issued canvasser ID, which is kind of cumbersome for the non-profit, but increases the likelihood of tracking somebody down in the event of a dispute. Most didn't, though. On the other hand, back then we didn't take credit cards.)