Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Legal question on signatures
Message-ID: <1056@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 11:30:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1056
Posted: Wed Aug 28 11:30:56 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 00:57:11 EDT
References: <314@tekla.UUCP> <4206@alice.UUCP> <826@burl.UUCP> <2590@ihnss.UUCP>
Reply-To: wmartin@brl-bmd.UUCP
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 35

In article <2590@ihnss.UUCP> wiso@ihnss.UUCP (Jack Wisowaty) writes:
>  After getting nowhere trying to explain that
>if she could read it it wouldn't be his real signature and the credit card
>company would bounce the transaction, he acquiesced and signed with his
>left-hand (he's right-handed) a signature befitting a first-grader where
>all the letter could be read.  She accepted it, the credit-card company
>didn't and he had a free night's stay.
>
Interesting -- I have never seen *any* evidence that any credit-card
company EVER looked at the signature on a charge-card form, or even that
a bank ever looked at the signature on a check, to verify that the
signer was the correct person. If you could get more information about
this incident and post it, it would be appreciated -- did your friend
notify the credit-card company that there might be a questionable charge
coming through from this particular location? Or did he challenge it
after receiving the bill and request a copy of the charge slip, and then
point out the dissimilarity of signature form?

I thought that the signatures were only used as evidence after-the-fact,
as verifcation of questionable charges, or as a method to prove the
falseness of a charge. After all, it would be an enormous task for any
credit-card company to compare signatures on file with those on the
millions of charge slips that come through. As for banks, they hardly
ever even LOOK at a check these days -- the processing is all done by
the magnetic encoded numbers and handled automatically. Only after a
bogus check is detected by the account holder would it be looked at by a
human (except for the keypunch-like translation of the amount to
magnetic digit imprint, which I think happens at the clearinghouse).

Thanks for further detail!

Regards,
Will Martin

UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin   or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA