Is it possible for a consumer to order cigarettes from the manufacturer by telephone? Did they call my aunt to make sure the order hadn't been placed by a minor using her credit card?
If a customer placed an order and they phoned to check, they could lose the sale and the customer if she didn't return the call. I find it remarkable that the caller didn't name her company so the customer would be more likely to call back.
Hundreds of companies call themselves "Marlboro", but I don't think the cigarette manufacturer is one. Wouldn't they answer the phone "Philip Morris"?
Legitimate orders are oftem placed with somebody else's credit card. So it was immaterial whether my aunt smoked. The only way to check the order was the tell her had been ordered. She might have said her adult daughter smoked that brand and had permission to use the card.
I don't remember seeing a warning for kids not to fill in forms on a web page. It seems a strange approach to demand personal information in order to determine if demanding it was legal. If the kid exaggerates his age or makes a typo on his DOB, the illegal information stays on file.
I've often forgotten passwords and never been asked my DOB for verification. Apparently they require it for some other reason. These are sites apparently without age restrictions.
You don't need to know what day people were born to classify them by age. Some newspapers will let you download an archived item for $3. For others, the price is to provide personal information, starting with name and date of birth. Together they form a unique identifier for most Americans.
If they want this information in leiu of dollars, it must be of value. How does it profit a newspaper to know the DOB of somebody a thousand miles away who once read an old article?
A big web company had files of customer information collected under an assurance of privacy. Another corporation bought them. A judge ruled that this corporation had the right to sell the personal information on file. There's a market for the personal information websites collect, and the result might not be harmless.
Choreboy