In the last 6 months, I’ve seen a number of stores go to electronic signatures for credit card purchases. Basically, you sign a magnetic pad and a computer “captures” your signature into a database. This whole process makes me a little uncomfortable.
Since you don’t get a copy of a signed receipt, what prevents the merchant from altering what you say you’ve purchased, or applying your signature to another purchase? Without a common signed paper copy, how do you resolve disputes?
For that matter, what prevents the merchant from keeping your electronic signature “on file” where it could be subject to theft and use by crafty hackers?
Perhaps most importantly, can you refuse to sign using that means? (obviously, you could refuse to patronize that given store)
I cannot answer your base question in any technical terms because I do not know the programming behind the digital signatures and exactly how they are appended to the sales file, however:
You do still get a reciept that shows what you purchased and how you paid. It would be much more difficult for the merchant to alter a computer file than the hand written amount on the old CC receipts (which was a fairly common practice at “less than reputable” businesses).
Again, you do get a receipt from the merchant which contains all the transaction data, like date, time, amount, payment method, etc. In case of a dispute you simply present that receipt to your CC company. The signature is not necessary.
Here’s where I don’t have the technical answer but I do have an educated WAG. The signature is probably digitally appended to the electronic sale record. It is probably not saved as a picture, but rather an algorithm. It is likely transmitted directly to the CC company’s billing server, either real time or in batch, and not to the merchants computer system. This is how it works at places where you swipe your card through a reader. That’s not to say an unscrupulous merchant couldn’t intercept the data somehow, but in that case your card number would be much more valuable than your signature.
You could, but the merchant could also refuse to let you purchase by credit card. The old, paper based method of CC payments was rife with opportunities for fraud. Electronic capture does not eliminate the fraud risk, but it does reduce it substantially.
I think ALL of my credit/debit cards sometimes work, and sometimes don’t (uh, technologically, that is).
Anytime the clerk can’t coax the swiper thing to work, out comes the old carbon-copy imprint maker. Paper signature; not digital.
Not that I’m suggesting you intentionally deface the back of your cards…