This is what I understand.
You must be 18 years old to be in possession of a "credit card." Incidentally, you also must be 18 to purchase tobacco products. Debit cards, and those fill-your-own "cash cards," can be held in the name of someone under 18, but require parental sign-off to use these non credit cards on credit card networks, which online retailers do not allow "cash cards" or debit cards (unless they're on a Visa/MC/AmEx network). If someone under 18 uses the credit card (or similar device) of another person, like a parent, to buy copious amounts of pipe tobacco (which, happens all the time... :roll: ) it constitutes fraud, and therefore the problem lies more in line then with identity theft, and to boot, someone under 18, which becomes the responsibility of the parents. It isn't something an online retailer can be nailed for criminally, unless a local/state law says otherwise (which I am not aware of any). That's why the check-boxes saying "By clicking I certify I am over the age of 18" and whatnot does is adds a layer of "good faith" to the intentions of the seller, not the buyer in case said parent decides to come back and sue. You know how it works: parents, not doing their job, want to blame it on someone else, and will find a reason. So the age "verification" has been, for years, with credit cards automatically assuming the user is 18 years or older--merely by use of the credit card and sales system, be it phone, or Internet.
The seller may have had a scare, a threat of legal action, some pressure from local anti-tobacco folks, or simply didn't want the cost of doing an online business and having to pay for separate credit card machine equipment (which isn't cheap).
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