jdmichal

I don't think this is off-topic at all. As far as I'm concerned, this is no different than any other realm in information security. Which is to say, it's impossible to make 100% secure. (By that, I mean it's not logically impossible, but definitely so cost-prohibitive that no company can ever implement it.)

Right now asking for IDs only works because asking for IDs is not the norm. If it were to be the norm, no person would try to use a stolen credit card without some sort of backing ID. And a survey of any American college campus would yield a very basic fact: It is not exactly difficult nor costly to get a fake ID. So basically, as far as I'm concerned, this policy would do nothing but extend the viable business range for fake ID creators from near college campuses to across the US.

Think about the fact that there's waiters and waitresses that have been caught with skimmers. It's clear that those mice have clearly gotten smarter. If you require ID, they'll simply get an ID scanner attachment for their credit card skimmer. Give the information from the scan to someone who creates fake IDs, and wham-bam-thankyoumam problem solved.

EDIT: A little over-zealous in my quote chopping...