created by ncconch on 05/02/2025 at 01:10 UTC
37 upvotes, 24 top-level comments (showing 24)
Comment by AutoModerator at 05/02/2025 at 01:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See this post[1], the rules, and the sidebar for details. Thank you for your submission, ncconch.
2: /message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople
Comment by sowhat4 at 05/02/2025 at 01:16 UTC
104 upvotes, 3 direct replies
It was a list of stolen CC numbers or CC numbers of no longer valid cards.
Comment by PoppingJack at 05/02/2025 at 02:05 UTC
55 upvotes, 2 direct replies
If the purchase was over $50, I used to have to call a 800 number and get an authorization code. What a pain for everyone- we hated credit cards.
Comment by CatOfGrey at 05/02/2025 at 01:20 UTC
28 upvotes, 6 direct replies
That was a book that contained a list of card numbers that were 'naughty' - associated with fraud or non-payment. If the buyer's card was on the list, the cashier reported it. Then, the cashier got about $20, $25, maybe even $50 as a reward (about a full days pay in the 1980's!)
In my memory, the person with the card knew it was coming, and didn't fight about it.
Comment by Estellalatte at 05/02/2025 at 02:29 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It was printed in the most thinnest paper with the most smallest numbers. It came out weekly. Lucky I was only in my 20’s and could read those.
Comment by Building_a_life at 05/02/2025 at 01:21 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It was a list of people whose credit was over the card limit, or who hadn't paid their bill, or who had some other credit problem. The cashier had to refuse those cards. If the issue was serious enough, they were supposed to confiscate the card. Our manager (my uncle) told us not to do that because it might lead to a dangerous confrontation with the cardholder. Edit: typos.
Comment by wezee at 05/02/2025 at 05:27 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
List of bad cards
Comment by peaceful_raven at 05/02/2025 at 01:16 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A list of stolen credit card numbers.
Comment by Mrs_Gracie2001 at 05/02/2025 at 01:26 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
They printed numbers of stolen cards in there.
Comment by mojoisthebest at 05/02/2025 at 14:19 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
When I worked retail in the 80s I actually was presented a credit card that was listed in the book. I was so proud and excited I would recieve the $20 reward. But the bank never paid me my $20 so that was the last time I ever checked the book. Bank can find their own dam bad cards.
Comment by ubermonkey at 05/02/2025 at 20:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As others have noted, it was fraud detection done analog.
My first corp job was working in the software dev department of TeleCheck, which did the same thing for check approvals, but a little better.
TCK had two main products:
One was just a check (no pun intended) against TCK's nationwide list of checkwriters. Using TCK's system meant TCK got to collect the bounced check fee. The company was widely used enough that using "still owes money to TeleCheck" was a viable way to ascertain check risk for merchants.
The fancier product worked the same way, with two additions: First, if we said "take the check" and the check bounced anyway, TELECHECK WOULD MAKE GOOD ON IT, and then collect it for ourselves on the back end.
Second, with this product, we introduced genuine risk models based on all sorts of factors, including gender of checkwriter, type of business, time of day, the number on the check, etc. The customer might not owe TCK any money for check fees, but if it smelled risky we'd still decline to guarantee it.
Are you buying pajamas with check 4500 at noon on a Tuesday as a 45 year old lady? Yeah, no red flags.
Are you buying a subwoofer at 5:15 on a Friday afternoon with check 101 as a 19 year old dude? Uh, yeah, probably gonna say no on that one.
Comment by Jurneeka at 05/02/2025 at 02:02 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Ah the Exception File! I was working part time at a bike shop back in the mid-to-late 90s that wasn't using it anymore but still had an old copy in the break room and it wasn't just a little book at that point.
Comment by Icy_Huckleberry_8049 at 05/02/2025 at 04:54 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
stolen and cancelled card list
Comment by Coffeenomnom_ at 05/02/2025 at 06:13 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Wow I completely forgot about this. The pages were very thin.
Comment by michaelpaoli at 05/02/2025 at 09:20 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Revoked card numbers. They were still using 'em in the '90s, would send 'em out monthly.
They'd also generally offer a reward of $50.00 USD for any retailer that would find, confiscate, and turn in such a card.
Comment by naked_nomad at 05/02/2025 at 14:11 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Worked at a Stop & Rob and you could pretty much catch the stolen cards by watching the customer. Excessive purchases, mixed purchases that did not go with each other, edgy/nervous. Yeah, I'm checking that card number.
$25.00 reward for each card caught. Hell of an incentive for a college student making $2.85 an hour.
Comment by TravelerMSY at 06/02/2025 at 08:37 UTC*
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Believe it or not, low-level purchases were just embossed and written on a paper slip and essentially deposited at the bank like a check. Only transactions above a certain amount would the clerk have to call for authorization and write it on the slip. For in-between amounts, one was to look and see if the number of the card wasn’t in the black list book and then approve it.
It wasn’t until the 80s in which commercial packet-switched (non internet) networks were available that the little terminals that hooked into the phone lines were common everywhere, and every purchase got approved or denied. Needless to say, credit and debit cards were way less common back then than they are now.
Comment by bookkeepingworm at 05/02/2025 at 01:30 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Every time someone used a credit card, they's affirm Mao's collectivist peinciples to truly hold running dog capitalists in contempt.
Comment by zoltarpanaflex at 05/02/2025 at 01:42 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My memory was it was a compilation of stolen credit card numbers, I don't see how in the world one could be spotted, but oh well !
Comment by SpaceDave83 at 05/02/2025 at 03:29 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My time as a cashier at a grocery store was cash or check only, no credit cards. It was nice.
Comment by AnastasiaNo70 at 05/02/2025 at 05:00 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
At first I thought you meant a book of produce codes, but we had to memorize those.
Comment by No-Picture4119 at 05/02/2025 at 08:46 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I briefly worked as a cashier at a car dealer in the 80s, in the service department. People really would get bummed, because they couldn’t get their car back when their card was declined. If the number was in the book, I would usually call and confirm. They would give you back a numerical code back over the phone. I guess they did it that way in case the cardholder was listening. One of the codes was to decline the card and give it back, another was to keep the card and tell them the credit card company has instructed me to retain the card. Had a couple people get really upset. That’s when you would page a couple of the techs to the service desk asap for protection.
Since we, even back then had service bills that were several hundred dollars, we also used Telecheck. If they paid with a check over a certain threshold, we had to call and give the information. Telecheck would either insure the check or decline. If they wouldn’t insure the check, our policy was not to take it. Sometimes when that happened, people would stomp off and come back a couple hours later with cash. I assumed they went to the bank or home (this was before ATMs).
Comment by newbie527 at 05/02/2025 at 20:58 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A list of bad numbers you should decline.
Comment by joebobbydon at 06/02/2025 at 15:32 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If I had a long ine of customers, I hated looking through this book. We kept a display of credit card applications on the counter for american express. I removed it because of the clutter. Some one came in a month later and pointed it out we had a contractual agreement to display these and to put it back. That was weird.