Fraud Fraut Froth

NY Times, Sept 21, 1995.

Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet

To the Editor:

Your Sept. 19 front-page article on the discovery by two
University of California graduate students of a flaw in
Netscape, the software used for purchases over the Internet's
World Wide Web, raises a number of obvious questions.

First, who needs high tech to perpetrate fraud? Any
unscrupulous commercial employee could use or sell your credit
card number without employing technology.

Every time you hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant, it
disappears for several minutes. The department store clerks
and gas station attendants you deal with also have access to
your card number. How secure is that?

Ever give your credit card number over the phone to make a
purchase from a mail-order house? Or to secure a reservation
at a hotel? Who's to say that the employees you're speaking
with are honest? Or that your phone is not tapped? Or theirs?

I shop on the Internet; I may get ripped off. What's my
liability? Fifty bucks -- same as the other scenarios I've
described. That's in my credit agreement with the card issuer.

So why all the hoopla? Is credit card fraud significantly more
prevalent on the Internet than in other modes of purchasing?

Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among
purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those
graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly?
If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company
working on some patentable security scheme?

Robert Herrig
Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995.

The writer is a systems consultant.

On Thu, 21 Sep 1995 anonymous@freezone.remailer.mindport.net wrote:

> NY Times, Sept 21, 1995.
> 
> Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet
> 
> To the Editor:
> 
> Your Sept. 19 front-page article on the discovery by two
> University of California graduate students of a flaw in
> Netscape, the software used for purchases over the Internet's
> World Wide Web, raises a number of obvious questions.
> 
> First, who needs high tech to perpetrate fraud? Any
> unscrupulous commercial employee could use or sell your credit
> card number without employing technology.
> 
> Every time you hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant, it
> disappears for several minutes. The department store clerks
> and gas station attendants you deal with also have access to
> your card number. How secure is that?

[...]

> 
> Robert Herrig
> Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995.
> 
> The writer is a systems consultant.

[For Netscape?]


---
"In fact, had Bancroft not existed,       potestas scientiae in usu est
Franklin might have had to invent him."    in nihilum nil posse reverti
00B9289C28DC0E55  E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information

In article <199509211130.HAA20039@light.lightlink.com>,
 <anonymous@freezone.remailer> wrote:
>NY Times, Sept 21, 1995.
>
>Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet
>
>To the Editor:
>
[snip]
>
>Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among
>purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those
>graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly?
>If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company
>working on some patentable security scheme?

The work we did was not funded by anyone.  If someone out there would
care to rectify this situation, he can let us know. :-)

   - Ian "Grad students are not notoriously wealthy in this country,
            either, right?"

> 
> Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among
> purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those
> graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly?
> If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company
> working on some patentable security scheme?
> 

	Do free t-shirts count as funding?

-- 
sameer						Voice:   510-601-9777
Community ConneXion				FAX:	 510-601-9734
An Internet Privacy Provider			Dialin:  510-658-6376
http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest")			sameer@c2.org

In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.950921075223.28417A-100000@polaris.mindport.net>, unicorn@polaris.mindport.net (Black Unicorn) writes:
> On Thu, 21 Sep 1995 anonymous@freezone.remailer.mindport.net wrote:
> > Robert Herrig
> > Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995.
> > 
> > The writer is a systems consultant.
> 
> [For Netscape?]

  No.

	--Jeff

-- 
Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist
Netscape Communication Corporation
jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw
Any opinions expressed above are mine.