[rbellio]

It's not a credit card company control, it's a merchant control to limit liability.

Having worked in loss prevention in the past, I know that the intent is to make sure these controls are checked an maintained. The issue you run into with cashiers is that the turn over rate is usually so high, or those checks aren't done frequently enough that the controls become lax.

Why would merchants be so concerned with these controls, you might ask? Because if it can be proven that the charges were made fraudulently, the merchant becomes responsible for them. If someone buys $300 of stuff from a store using your credit card, the store loses that cash.

[dpark]

Why are you bringing this control up if you know that it's 1) optional, 2) poorly implemented, 3) not actually intended to protect you?

[rbellio]

If something so simple is deemed optional, how many merchants do you think are going to be willing to pay to have the equipment to view your picture when they try to charge your phone.

Speaking of pictures associated with your phone. Where is this picture going to be stored? On the phone? Where, if someone steals it, they could replace it? Should we have a national database then that relates your phone number to an image of you?