Fingerprint recognition in schools

[Ian Batten]

>
> I suspect (a) and (c) are very widespread, though expecting a cheque  
> to
> be legal tender is fairly startling.

Not that uncommon.  For example,Guardian Money section letters page,  
Feb 2 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/02/2):

> "Your M&S" will no longer apply to customers who prefer to pay by  
> cheque. A few notices have begun to appear in branches stating that  
> cheques will not be accepted after March 1. How does M&S justify  
> this change in policy? Is there any way that customers might  
> convince M&S that cards are not the only way to pay? Oh yes, there  
> will doubtless be a cash machine somewhere in the store, but you'll  
> need a card to access that, too.
>
> Help! I am a frequent customer of many years' standing and want to  
> continue to pay by cheque. After all, I thought cheques are still  
> legal tender - or is that about to change as well?
> Ann Atkinson-Daynes, London
>
>
>
> So cheque forgery is a form of identity fraud which almost always
> lumbers the bank, not the customer.

I had a cheque book and cheque card stolen from a gym sometime in the  
mid eighties, and indeed I didn't get stuck for it.  However, it was a  
fairly painful piece of haggling with the bank to recover the three  
hundred quid, sufficiently so that I changed bank in an era when  
changing bank was rather harder.

>  But with chip and pin, and online
> payments, the banks often get away with the line that it was your
> number/password, so it must have been you or you must have been  
> careless
> in breach of the banking code, and you rather than the bank get  
> lumbered.

Do we have any solid evidence that they `get away with the line' more  
than they did in the past?  Legal rights are one thing, actually  
enforcing them is quite another.

ian