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No
Cheques Please - We're Stupid
If anybody who reads this is genuinely interested
in the security of their own wealth, they will, no doubt, have decided not to
invest in a credit card - the security is crap. I am not the only person who is of
this opinion either: shop workers have tales to tell of how customers compromise their PINS, how cheques are better and how 'Chip and PIN' is generally worthless.
However, the credit card companies are doing their best to promote their way of doing things
(you pay for everything using a credit card) by ensuring that their biggest threat - and a
threat that is substantially more secure than a credit card - is discredited (if you'll
excuse the pun). So, what is the credit card's biggest threat? The humble cheque.
Let's look at each of them...
| Cheque | Credit card |
|---|
| Transaction requires presence of cheque |
Credit card not required
(Card-not-present transactions - CNPTs) |
| Signature required (biometric - more secure) |
PIN number required (hideously insecure) |
For the fraudster, the signature needs practice to get right fluently
(Till operators are trained to look out for fraud like this) |
PIN number only needs remembering |
| Sample signatures are needed so that the fraudster can copy them |
A PIN only needs shoudler surfing once
(An 8 character password can be surfed in two goes - one to get the first four characters and once to get the last four. A PIN is only four digits and only needs seeing once.) |
| A cheque book has a limited number of cheques in it (30 minus the number you have used - an average of 15). Whilst you can have your account emptied with only one cheque, there are limits on the numer of transactions and a cheques is a physical entity that is traceable and carries DNA from the people who come into contact with them. |
A credit card has no limit on the number of transactions. They can be made many and peacemeal so nobody notices - a computer program can do this automatically. As CNPTs are a reality, you don't even need to have your credit card stolen. PIN only has any security effect when the card is present so CNPTs are not affected by PINs. |
| Cheques contain various security devices such as different types of ink, holograms, Moire interference devices and so on. These make it very expensive to copy cheques. |
Credit cards have a code that can be broken. The four or five digit security code is security-by-obscurity which, as everybody in the security industry knows, doesn't work. |
So, what is happening? The answer is that shops are increasingly refusing to take cheques. So, what impact does that have on those of us that do not want to take the 'devil-may-care' attitude towards our finances? We find that we have to pay cash. So, in view of this rather stupid state of affairs, I have decided to name and shame those shops and other establishments thay you would expect to take cheques but that do not.
The Birmingham Wheel.
Location: Centenary Square Birmingham UK.
Cost: Adults GBP5.50, Children GBP3.50.
Jacobs photographic shop.
Location: St Peter's Street, Derby UK.
Thinking about paying by cheque? Go, buy it from somewhere else - try just the other side of the Spot.
GameStation.
Location: East Street, Derby UK.
There are other shops in the area - on the other side of the block for instance.
The Link.
Location: Eagle Centre, Derby UK.
Notice that in the top left of the shop sign, it says 'Dixons'. All you have to do is go through Boots the chemist (if you are looking at the shop at this angle, turn right and walk a few yards and one of the entrances to Boots the Chemist is on your right), work your way through the shop and when you come out the other side, turn left (if you come out and WH Smiths is in front of you, turn left and then left again at Copecastle Square - you will walk past the entrance you should have come out at). After a few yards, you will see Dixons on the left (just before you get out of the Eagle Centre). In there, they will match your price (from the Link). Ignore the 'Only at the Link' signs, Dixons will match the price.
More to come...
There are plenty of shops that do accept cheque such as HMV, PC World, Dixons, Argos, ASDA, Sainsbury's and so on, so why can't the shops pictured above be bothered? I think that they just haven't bothered to think it through properly.
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