Posted on Saturday, 16th January 2010 by admin
Pop icon Britney Spears is in the headlines again. This time, for credit card misdeeds. It shows that, once again, celebrity trumps all.
According to TMZ, Spears used her bodyguard’s credit card to buy two pairs of boots on a recent shopping spree. The problem: Spears signed her own name to the receipt.
Signatures don’t matchAccording to the report, the sales clerk gave her a hard time because the signature didn’t match the name on the card. Spears apparently talked the clerk into accepting the transaction anyway, saying that since the bodyguard was an employee of her company it was OK.
Huh? OK, in the real world, if you or I try to use someone else’s credit card to make a purchase and signed our own name to the receipt, it probably would be a different scenario entirely:
Clerk: Is this your card?
Me: Well, it’s a company card. It’s OK if I use it.
Clerk: May I see some identification please?
Me: I don’t have any ID. You know who I am. Everybody knows me. I’m famous.
Clerk: (Dialing a manager) I can’t authorize this transaction. Security!
Or something like that.
ID theft is no jokeNow, we also know that not all store clerks are diligent about checking those signatures. CreditCards.com has written about how some clerks ignore it when cardholders have written “SEE ID” on the signature line on the back of their cards. And, some people have “signed” those electronic signature pads with crude drawings and other things.
How is what Spears did different from when a boss gives an assistant his or her personal credit card to do personal shopping? I’m guessing the assistant doesn’t sign his or her own name on the receipt.
Perhaps we should all hope that neither Britney Spears nor any other celebrity gets a hold of our credit cards. Apparently, all the normal safeguards against ID theft are trumped by celebrity. That’s troubling because experts are predicting an increase in ID theft over the next two years.
Here’s the kicker: According to TMZ, Spears has her own credit card. But because her finances are controlled by a conservatorship (she can’t handle her own money responsibly), she is limited to spending a mere $1,500 a week on that card. I’m not sure how her financial handlers would limit her weekly spending on her own card. But I guess she had already reached her weekly limit.
See related: Britney Spears does something modestly — charge on credit
Similar Posts:
- The credit card fraud detection conundrum
- Do You Need To Sign Your Credit Card?
- Treated Like a Criminal at Checkout? Don’t Put Up With It
- Credit Card Signatures – to Sign or Not to Sign?
- Dr. Seuss goes to the carnival
Tags: Britney Spears, Card, Credit Card
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