[bboygravity]

I remember being mind-blown on my first trip to the US when a taxi driver took my card and literally carbon copied it manually (with a pencil and carbon copy booklet) on the spot.

I had been using my credit card for at least a decade (Europe) and it never ever occured to me that the embossed letters had any function other than aesthetic.

And the cheques... jaw drop

[robin_reala]

That is how they used to work though. I’m old enough to remember imprinters, which literally used the embossed numbers to create a carbon copy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter

[Zanfa]

I had a food delivery guy use one in the US 2012/2013. It was like seeing a native tribe perform their traditional dance. It still blows my mind that chip + "signature" is a thing in the US. What good is a random indiscernible scribble on a tiny resistive touch screen as far as proving anything?

[staunton]

It's quite illegal to fake signatures so it acts as a deterrent. I can't think of anything else...

[542354234235]

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure it is also illegal to steal someone's credit card and use it. If you have already done that, I don't think the idea of scribbling illegally is going to warn anyone off. Chip+PIN is objectively far more secure. People used debit cards with swipe+PIN for decades just fine and chip+PIN is used in many other countries without an issue. It is just silly to keep using signature and acting like it does absolutely anything at all.

[chgs]

That was how things worked back in the 80s and 90s, online or chip systems were in place 20 years ago in Europe