> "While basic security measures were implemented, in that customers were told t...

userbinator · on Sept 2, 2019

On a more serious note: Are regular people/journalists not aware of how pressing buttons on a phone works anymore?

Given that a lot of people now think of a phone as being a handheld rectangular device with a touchscreen, I'd say yes.

Even in the days of pulse dialing and the early DTMF (with things like 2600), I think people didn't really know either.

sunebeck · on Sept 2, 2019

This is supposed to be contrasted with an operator asking for the credit card digits manually, leaving room for them to scribble down the card number.

The DTMF system is so that the computer receives the card number directly. Of course that could be done with speech recognition as well.

And in any case, as others have pointed out, a phone connection is not a secured line.

But then again, a credit card fraud incident isn't the end of the world either. So maybe the risk is acceptable.

tgsovlerkhgsel · on Sept 3, 2019

> Are regular people/journalists not aware of how pressing buttons on a phone works anymore?

Not sure if they ever were, but they surely aren't now. Even in terms of basic knowledge about DTMF.

When it comes to the details, I'm not sure how pressing buttons on a phone works nowadays. I think there's at least 3 different ways it can work with SIP. I would expect mobile phones to be just as bad.