A Note About Receipts

Written in India

This post is long overdue. It's a bit geeky, but it's still worthwhile. More importantly, it's short. Asia does not appear to have the same powerful privacy lobby that we have in the States. How do I know that? Because when we got our first ATM receipt, I looked down and noticed my credit card number. The whole thing. No X's politely obfuscating the digits of the account number. Then we noticed it again when we paid for Starbucks with a credit card in the airport -- our whole credit card number right there, for anyone to copy down. Clearly, we can't just throw them away. We spent about 20 minutes one day tearing them into tiny and tinier shreds. And then we just started saving them to throw away or shred when we get to Lizzi's Dad's house in Philadelphia. A moment of brilliance came when Chris and Amanda suggested that we burn them. Um, DUH. Except that we never stay in smoking rooms, so for the time being at least, they're still cluttering up the bottoms of our packs, waiting for the day when they meet their fateful end in a shredder. The point behind all of this is to say that even though identity theft in the US is on the rise, it's really easy to do from India. Let us know if you need some quick cash and we'll hang out by an ATM and send you some receipts!