On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:19:00 +0200, andrel wrote:

> 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.

Wow, I never realized it was that bad.  I knew about the fingerprinting 
and whatnot you go through entering the country, but not about that 
banking stuff on the backend.

>> 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.

Oh, I see.

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