TiVo Community Forum Archive 1

TiVo Community Forum Archive 1 (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/index.php)
- TiVo Coffee House - TiVo Discussion (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3)
-- Not Pleased with Gift TiVo (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=181949)

Posted by TiVoOpsMgr on 06-28-2004 06:39 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by dobbie1
If the sub-number is stolen or forged TiVo wants a method for billing, but what if the recipient is totally unaware that the number is invalid, do you automatically bill the credit card they provided? What if they did not want to purchase the TiVo service and were only using it because it was a gift. They are going to get billed like it or not. Would not the better option be just to cancel the TiVo service once the fraud was detected? I would assume that it doesn't take that long to detect an invalid number. It is my belief that if someone is out to try and steal service in this manner, it is just a easily to give you a credit card number for validation then immediately cancel the card.
dobbie1, we certainly would contact the customer before billing, and certainly can and would shut off service. But by that point it's too late -- we've already lost money in telecom fees, and lost time in trying to research the fraud. Having the credit card be required is a great deterrent against fraud. For example, it may be quite easy for (say) an ambitious sixteen-year-old to spend a week cracking gift subscription numbers to try to steal service. But having to also steal a credit card would deter that same 16-year-old, plus add more serious criminal penalties when they are caught. Someone's identity is now on the line.

Not too long ago I was involved in a fraud case where the customer registered as "Bozo T. Clown," had the hardware sent to a public address, used a fake address for activating service, and was only caught because the Feds caught up to him on his stolen credit card. I think our accounting department's fraud team gets a lot busier if we drop the credit card requirement on the gift sub side.

But, I'll be meeting with the team this week and will let you know what we can do about this requirement.

Best,
Stephen

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