I nominate fucking ‘Verified by Visa’ for a new cunting.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against companies trying to cut down on cyber fraud. But the new system takes the fucking mick.
Up until a month ago after entering your billing address, HSBC would take you to a Visa page where it asks you for a password. No problem, do that all the time. Bit of a faff remembering all these passwords on the internet, but you know – it’s a necessary evil.
Then recently the fucking cunts want to start sending you authentication codes on SMS to your mobile, which you then have to enter on the website after you have entered all the other bullshit. I was absolutely gobsmacked!
This may seem like a nit-pick, but for some people this makes buying shit online a total, unworkable ballache. So we are simultaneously going towards a world where everything is done online, but at the same time making it even more difficult to buy things online. Well which one is it? As of now I still can’t fucking slide five pound notes into my wall socket.
So why is this a problem? Why does it deserve a cunting?
Well it all depends on where you live and what you do. If you a latte sipping, quinoa munching soy boy, then being outside of mobile reception BUT having access to the internet is not a common occurrence so this isn’t a massive problem. You know for sure the San Francisco-based visa exec who okayed this, hasn’t been without phone reception since he went to that gang-bang in the desert five years ago. So, like, what’s the big problem?
Well, for the rest of the human race, you know the ones who work for a living, it’s a major fucking problem. I will list some of the scenarios where you might now be unable to buy products and services online: Live or work in an area with poor reception, live or work in an area with intermittent reception, travel or work in countries without international roaming, operate in a country with shit infrastructure, or suffers from local telecom monopolies; work in an industry that operates offshore, such as energy, shipping, fishing, defence; work in secure environments that restrict mobile phones, such as security, defence, diplomatic or intelligence sector; work abroad for UK government agencies which do not allow you to use UK based phones OR LINK YOUR PERSONAL ONLINE ACCOUNTS TO LOCAL PHONES; operate in an area which uses sat phones, use multiple work phones, carry out cyber-security 101 by swapping phone numbers regularly, or just simply DON’T OWN A FUCKING MOBILE PHONE! In all the above scenarios, it is sorry out-of-fucking-luck from Visa.
My family live in Devon, as far from townies as we can possibly get these days. I have to walk upstairs to one of the windows, wave my phone around like it is a fucking lightsabre, and maybe I’ll get the message in time to make the payment.
Don’t talk to me about WiFi calling – it is such a fucking crapshoot whether a phone, OS, and network are going to work together. It has worked in the past, doesn’t work now and I don’t have the time or energy to work out why.
Most of my adult professional life has been in places without my UK phone because of security issues with GSM tracking. So you are now telling me that a British grunt scratching his balls in Kabul, Afghanistan, who wakes up on 13 Feb thinking oh shit! didn’t get my girlfriend a present for Valentine’s. He loads up the web browser, chooses something naff and cliche, perfect for a squaddy’s missus, only to find that he can’t buy it. Why is he being penalised for doing a man’s job?
Also, what happens if you are a highly-functioning alcoholic? Lose you phone on a night out in Bangkok brothel, stumble back to your hotel room, sleep through your 0900 flight, load up the lappie, try to book a new flight – fuck! I now have to get on a call queue to speak to some fucking chick in Bangladesh while trying to sort my shit out to get home before my wife works out where I am.
Phone numbers are not a fucking ID system. It is a just a number for routing calls. What next, the next phone number is yours for life, it is your fucking barcode, etched next to your rectum. Fucking cunts are just so desperate to get us a global user ID system to make their life easier, in the meantime willing to fuck over millions of people with a poorly thought compromise. Plus you just know they will be selective on this, buy from Amazon? No problem. Buy from a small independent retailer, oh! you’ll need to verify yourself. Fuckers.
Don’t get me started about how the world got into the situation where Visa and Mastercard basically run the global payment system. How did the government think – well we have printed money as a representation of value, but we’ll stop there and let some US corporations do the rest. We need a digital currency, so when Visa and Mastercard start turning the screws, we don’t have to just bend over and take it.
Fuck Visa and fuck their shit.
Nominated by Dick Malone