I went to a Jerusalem pub with friends last night. They picked up my tab and paid with their credit cards. Naturally, I looked at the slips and had some interesting findings. There is the mandatory (although unnecessary, IMO) signature field in addition to a field for your phone number. This field has always been there and people keep filling it blindly without much thought although nothing happens if they don’t. My friend jotted down his number and I asked him why? He retorted with, “why not?” It was the end of a night of politic ranting so I let it go.
Luckily, he did not fill in the new (to me) field of ID number (the Israeli equivalent to social security number.) Yes, there is an extra line for your ID number in addition to your signature, phone number AND your credit card number that appears at the top. ID fraud heaven.
My guess is that people blindly fill in all the fields and complete the set of data needed for their bank account to be emptied by people other than themselves.
Have fun in the motherland :-)
I wonder how pervasive this practice is. It certainly wasn’t there when I left, a month and a half ago.
The phone number field is there, presumably for someone to call you if there is a problem with the transaction. I never had anyone call me in 15 years, but some places insist on filling it.
The national ID number is usually asked for in online and phone transactions, and is used to further identify you. What happens behind the scenes is that every CC transaction has a field that specifies the type of the transaction, and the type of transaction is determined by many factors like whether a physical credit card was present, whether the marchent has asked for a picture ID, whether the marchent asked for authorization, etc. There is also a field determining the type of marchent – a food place, an online store, etc. This effects the transaction in two ways: The marchent may get a better deal with the CC company for a more ‘secure’ transaction, and he may charge larger sums on a more secure transaction. My guess is that this is a test to see how people comply so the marchent can do more ‘secure’ transactions.
In the US I sometime have to punch in the zip code of the billing address of the credit card when I buy gas, I guess it’s no different except that the national ID has a higher potential for identity theft.
Personally, I would (and will when I’m in israel) leave this field blank at all times.
Great information, Arik.
I’ve only made 2 CC transactions here so I don’t know if I caught an exception to the rule. I’ll keep on looking.
Yes, in the US they started not too long ago to ask for a zip code when you pay with CC for gas (“for your protection!”) I guess this is more for the warm fuzzy than anything else.
Cheers.
I filled in the fibonacci sequence. Is that wrong ? I *HATE* being a tourist.
Oh, I love the fee I pay for “money” currency conversion on my credit card.
Glad you had fun in Jerusalem. If we meet up in your home town I’ll happily buy you a nice dinner :-) We miss you over here. Which bar were you at? I don’t really like most of the bars around Ben Yehudah since they have sort of a sleazy element. Not to mention too many weird tourists… ;-)