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BigV · 05-06-2011, 05:16 PM

I have made numerous transactions with my plastic that did not require a signature or a PIN.

It is easy to make fraudulent purchases in this way.

I don't see the wording of this prompt as encouraging people to make fraudulent purchases. I see it as the first step in a decision tree of the payment processing system to determine how to process the payment. the wording could be different--in fact, when I bought groceries at the store this morning, the first prompt I saw was (words to the effect of): Credit / Debit? This is the same question essentially. I think the wording of the Sonic initial prompt was chosen for two reasons. 1 -- it is more conversational than credit/debit. and 2 -- it does seem to bias the transaction toward PIN/debit usage. Otherwise, if they're able to process it as a credit without a signature, why wouldn't they? and just skip the whole extra debit/pin trouble. I think they DON'T do this for two reasons. I think they would want to use the least expensive transaction model, and I think this is the debit transaction, and I think they'd want to make your shopping experience at Sonic as easy and uncomplicated as possible, therefore why bother you with a signature if they don't have to.

my $0.02.

05-06-2011, 05:16 PM	#13
BigV Goon Squad Leader Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 27,063	I have made numerous transactions with my plastic that did not require a signature or a PIN. It is easy to make fraudulent purchases in this way. I don't see the wording of this prompt as encouraging people to make fraudulent purchases. I see it as the first step in a decision tree of the payment processing system to determine how to process the payment. the wording could be different--in fact, when I bought groceries at the store this morning, the first prompt I saw was (words to the effect of): Credit / Debit? This is the same question essentially. I think the wording of the Sonic initial prompt was chosen for two reasons. 1 -- it is more conversational than credit/debit. and 2 -- it does seem to bias the transaction toward PIN/debit usage. Otherwise, if they're able to process it as a credit without a signature, why wouldn't they? and just skip the whole extra debit/pin trouble. I think they DON'T do this for two reasons. I think they would want to use the least expensive transaction model, and I think this is the debit transaction, and I think they'd want to make your shopping experience at Sonic as easy and uncomplicated as possible, therefore why bother you with a signature if they don't have to. my $0.02. __________________ Be Just and Fear Not.