Identity theft? Davis swipes Senator Day's campaign card rhetoric

...in the immigration debate.

Early last September, Dick Day said in a campaign press release:

“There is absolutely no reason VISA and Mastercard should do a better job than the US government at keeping track of people.

Last night on KTTC, Davis said:

"I don't understand when you go to an ATM, Visa or MasterCard can check someones identity pretty quickly and efficiently and almost instantaneously. Why the federal government can't get some of that technology to determine someones residency status," Davis says.

This is what is passing for common sense among Republicans these days? Back in September, Dave Mindeman at mnpACT! pointed out:

And besides, if you want to stand by this statement:

"There is absolutely no reason VISA and Mastercard should do a better job than the U.S. government at keeping track of people."

I hope [you're] willing to explain that analogy to those constituents who have been victims of identity theft [link added to statistics]. I'm not sure they will be so quick to agree.

Dave's right. Ruthless and clever thieves have come up with all sorts of ways to circumvent Visa and Mastercard ability to match card and cardholder. Breaching databases of electronic fund transfer information at retailers to swipe account numbers and PINs is a big problem.  Within the last 24 hours, the Associated Press reported:

There were 167 breaches in the U.S. in the first three months of 2008, up from 76 in last year's first quarter, the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center announced Wednesday.

Breaches disclosed so far this year have potentially affected 8 million people, said the nonprofit group, which counts breaches reported in news media and other sources that it considers reliable.

This year's biggest breach so far occurred at Hannaford Bros. Co., a Maine-based supermarket chain that said last month that hackers had exposed more than 4 million credit and debit card numbers in a breach that led to at least 1,800 cases of fraud. The breach affected Hannaford stores in the Northeast and Sweetbay stores in Florida that are owned by Delhaize America.

Last year, the Identity Theft Resource Center counted 446 breaches, up 43 percent from 2006.

Other strategies involve installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs. Bad people figure out how to circumvent those things that supposedly match the cardholder and the card.

Consumer protection laws help prevent financial losses to the individual cardholder, depending upon the type of card used (credit or debit/check).  Visa and Mastercard often eat the consequences after the fact, again depending upon whether the card is a credit card or debit.

It's costly to Visa and Masterard, and takes time for consumers to resolve. The most recent FBI report on financial crimes (FY 2006) says:

A survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2006 estimated that 8.3 million American consumers, or 3.7 percent of the adult population, became victims of identity theft in 2005. Most of the financial losses are suffered by credit issuers and banks, as victims are rarely held responsible for fraudulent debts incurred in their name; however, victims often bear  the responsibility of contacting their banks and credit issuers after an     identity theft has occurred. The same FTC survey determined that victim consumers spent over 200 million hours in 2005 attempting to recover from identity theft.

While matching PIN to card is pretty easy, have VISA and Mastercard come up with a fool-proof match of card and cardholder? Hardly. Can Dick Day keep Brian Davis from absconding with foolish analogies? Guess not.

The BBC's The Real Hustle illustrated one of the scams (it's not localized to Great Britain):

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[Grace Kelly]

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