[2608] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: safety of SSL 2?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lance Cottrell)
Wed Apr 29 23:14:34 1998
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.91.980428213934.27833O-100000@ivan.iecc.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 11:00:32 -0700
To: John R Levine <johnl@iecc.com>, "Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr@nfr.net>
From: Lance Cottrell <loki@infonex.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
When delivering physical goods, delivering the product gives a physical
address where the user of the stolen card can be found. The Address
Verification System (AVS) is unreliable and frequently out of date.
Additionally, many users of stolen cards seem to have correct address
information as well. Also, since non-US addresses are not covered by AVS,
many thieves put foreign addresses in the billing address field.
In summery, credit cards are a terrible payment system for on-line
transactions for intangible goods and services. Unfortunately they are the
one that almost all users prefer at this time.
-Lance
At 9:40 PM -0400 4/28/98, John R Levine wrote:
>> The bulk of the fraud is apparently stolen credit cards being used
>> to purchase online services (since there's no shipping address). This
>> is really hitting ISPs and online porn merchants. ...
>
>> It's interesting because shipping address is used to 'authenticate' a
>> lot of current credit card transactions. In an address-less environment,
>> that logic doesn't work. ...
>
>Well, I'm confused. There's no reason they can't ask for the billing address
>for verification, and many on-line sites do. Somthing smells fishy here.
>
>Regards,
>John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
>Dummies",
>Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer
>Commissioner
>Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36
>A3 47
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Lance Cottrell loki@infonex.com
PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server.
http://www.infonex.com/~loki/
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly
it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice
weasels come."
--Nietzsche
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