On 23-Jul-08 0:46, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:01:43 +0200, andrel wrote:
> 
>> Sure, but in most cases when multiple cards are misused you can trace it
>> back to one or more stores if that happens. With e-mail it can happen
>> anywhere. I guess that whatever I write to these guys in NZ my mail will
>> pass through the US at some point and at least their security service
>> will scan it for tell tale words. When I'd fly to the US they also want
>> my recent credit card info, so I assume they also filter those numbers
>> out from e-mails that happen to pass through their territory. Actually
>> they would do that even for e-mails that never reach the US. And so
>> would the dutch and the sovjet intelligence services.
> 
> Huh?  Our border folks ask for *credit card info* upon entry to the US?  
> That's news to me....But I always go through the "citizens" line, so I'm 
> not as familiar with what the process is for non-citizens.

What they want to know is what credit cards you have and what you bought 
from who. Just to make sure you don't have financial relations with 
extremists of a religion other than the dominant one in the US. Or so 
they say. You don't have to provide that yourself upon entry. Your 
airline has to provide part of it and the banks have to provide the rest 
and that is all before you are actually in the states. I don't know the 
exact details, these are in treaties between the US and the EU. I can 
only assume the EU signed that out of free will and that all details are 
public.

> But it's not so much about the security services - it's about the thieves 
> who use the information for their own ends.

I know, just making the point that if you exchange credit card info by 
e-mail, someone is probably aware of that. And that hacking some 
machines in the US (and elsewhere) may provide you with credit card info 
from a substantial group of people.

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