SBB signature fraud

 The process of signing documents has got much worse in the last 7 years.

The way it used to work is: they gave you two copies, you see if you're willing to sign, check they're the same, sign one, and give the other to them, noting on yours that you signed the other, or just signing it too, it doesn't matter.

The way it often works now is: they give you a small blank screen to sign, and a stylus type thing to do it with.  You sign the blank screen, and their device captures this signature.  They then attach the signature, to whatever the fuck they want.

I first became aware of this returning from Zurich airport after being away for a month.  I had had a GA, which means you buy access to all Swiss public transport for a fixed price.  I think it was 7 or 8 k for a year first class.  It saves a lot of time buying tickets.  I hadn't made enough use of my GA to justify the price, but I appreciated the convenience.  On this occasion my GA had expired while I was away.  They used to print the expiry date on the card, but then their system got too "clever" and "dynamic" for this, leaving the poor customer to label the card with the expiry themselves, or proactively manage the situation with their calendar, which I had failed to do.  It's tempting to remove information from stuff because you think your system is so clever and dynamic.  In a sysadmin team, I once proposed we cease labelling our servers, for the same reasons.  I'm sure it would have been a mistake.  So my GA had expired, and a visual check of the card would not have revealed this.  I had not made much use of my GA, but for the Swiss there is not generally a concept of give-and-take.  Technically, they were correct in fining me 100 CHF or whatever it was, for not having a valid ticket.  Fine.  That's how they do it.  If you are ever at a small SBB station, use the paper bin as a receptacle for a large box of paper recycling, they absolutely love it.  And never ever give an inch to SBB or to SBB staff that you don't have to, in any situation, ever.  Reciprocity.

I gave them my details for the fine, and they asked me to sign the screen.  At this point I should have asked what was going on, but I just signed the blank screen.  Later, when I got the bill in the post, it was a one or two page A4 document, with a lot of details on it, and... my signature!  I hadn't signed such a thing.  Now, all the details on the document, other than the signature, were correct.  They were just the time and place, and the fact that I didn't have a valid ticket, and my name and address and the train info and what-not.  But this doesn't change the fact that SBB tricked me into signing a blank screen, and fraudulently superimposed my signature onto something I didn't sign.

That's why I called it SBB signature fraud.

Since, I have observed it in Obi the hardware store, in an Austrian branch.  Obi got me to sign a blank screen when I ordered a product, and had great difficulty that I wanted to know what it was I was about to sign.  I think I eventually got them to print it, and did it the paper way.

There are little signature terminals in Swiss Post branches, and these display some kind of identifier.  I'm not sure it makes it much better.  The basic idea with signing something is that it's easy for the signer to keep their own record of everything they've signed.  I don't see how it works other than on paper.

Austrian banks also have these signing pads.  I think I've always opted for paper, and they've always obliged.  Fine.

SBB signature fraud is going to get more common, as the general populace confuses gadgetisation with progress.