From: Ronald Raygun 
Subject: Re: Credit card fraud
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 09:27:39 GMT

Derek F wrote:

> When the operator came on line she asked me to confirm my
> address and she said that is the new address that you gave last July.

I hate it when they abuse the word "confirm" like that.

If they really wanted you to confirm your address, it should mean
that *they* would guess your address, and *you* would then tell them
whether they were right.  But what they usually mean is that *you* guess
and *they* confirm.  In other words, what they actually want you to do
with your address isn't to confirm it but to divulge it, and divulging
*any* information is always questionable from a security point of view.