As he signed an executive order that says that credit and debit cards all over the country must have chip-and-pin technology, new information came out through the mouth of the leader of the United States: President Barack Obama's credit card was declined in New York last month, when he was out with First Lady Michelle Obama.
The President mentioned the Obama credit card incident while he was signing a new executive order at the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau. The order includes new legislation about chip-and-pin technology for credit and debit cards, but also different new strategies to fight financial fraud and identity theft, according to The Huffington Post.
According to the President, the Obama credit card incident happened last month in an undisclosed New York restaurant - but The New York Daily News had previously reported that the President and First Lady Michelle Obama had recently dined with senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett at the downtown Manhattan restaurant Estela.
The President told the Obama credit card incident to make the point that every consumer was vulnerable to this kind of problems, even him. It turns out that when it was time to pay the check for the dinner for three, the restaurant declined his card.
"It turned out I guess I don't use it enough, so they thought there was some fraud going on," the President said, adding later that thankfully the First Lady stepped up to pay for the dinner. "I was trying to explain to the waitress, 'No really, I think that I've, uh, been paying my bills.' So even I'm affected by this."
The Obama credit card situation turned out to be a mild incident, but financial fraud and identity theft are among the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. This was only one of many examples of odd occurrences regarding the subject.
Because of this, the new order executive order requires things like the introduction of new machines that make personal data available online only though two-factor authentication, long-in by typing a password and a PIN code sent to the user's phone. The order also adds the inclusion of a nationwide "Internet Fraud Alert System."
