fax back request

I am seriosuly pissed about these fax back requests for new users signing up with dreamhost. i spent all morning telling someone to host their site with DH. they get all the way through the process only to get an email telling them to fax back their cc info....complete BS step. wanting to protect against cc fraud is one thing, but forcing a user to actually leave where they are, go somewhere where there is a fax machine, which they would probably have to pay to use the fax, is absurd.

i am seriously ticked off and almost embarassed to have referred dreamhost now.

ya, I never figured out what the purpose of that is. It's part of their fraud detection program, for some reason your sign up got flaged and they decided they need to verify you. How a rubbing of your cc means anything is an other matter. Even if it's a stolen CC number it would be really easy to photoshop the rubbing and then fax it in. It's not like faxes are high quality to even notice my defects.

I don't know if you can convince support to wave this silly step or not. If you've got a scanner and one of the odl things called modems hooked up to your computer you could also fax from home. I think DH is worth it, even if this step is incrediably stupid and annoying.



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

yeah it was just borderline absurd...i do agree i think the plan is worth it, but when the client of mine saw the whole thing about sending not just a FAX of your credit card, but a RUB of the face of your credit card (with a suggestion of using a crayon), it was like we were in 1985...and actually was sort of like 'strike 1' against dreamhost for a new customer who wasnt even fully signed on yet.

In reply to:

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a RUB of the face of your credit card

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I agree that this is a stupid requirement, but DreamHost may have no real choice in the matter.

I recall reading a post on the DreamHost blog regarding a particular CC company requiring DreamHost to take certain 'security' steps that they really didn't want to (requiring CSC codes if I recall correctly).

Perhaps this situation is similar.

Mark

We have been the victim of quite a bit of attempted fraud this year. We don't have any choice but to be very strict, so your understanding and assistance is appreciated.

I'm all about being strickt, and I totally understand that dreamhost gets tons of false sign ups. But how does a CC rubbing help? I'm just curious. Isn't it just a little too easy to fake it?



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Most documents can be faked, its just a matter of how much work it is to fake it. Accounts that have submited the fax have a vastly reduced fraud rate.

That makes sense, personal oppinions of crayon rubbings aside. Reducing fraud on my server is always a good thing.



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

RUB of the face of your credit card (with a suggestion of using a crayon)

Would be even more quaint if they required US post mail-back.

And you know somewhere there's a market for original and black-white fax copies of CC rubbings. I'd search Ebay, but don't really want the answer.


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