"Just Use Your Real Credit Card Number"

I have been told by Discover Card and Amazon.com to "just use your real credit card number," rather than a temporary number for purchases at Amazon.com. This is after I bought MP3s the other day and the temporary credit card number which I've used for at least a year there was suddenly rejected.

I got a new temporary number, and that one went through. Then I made a purchase of merchandise, which was rejected. Discover says it is because the purchase is going through under another merchant name, rather than Amazon.com. Well, that has been the case for forever. So what is the deal?

Discover's answer? Use your actual card number. It is secure and in the unlikely case it is compromised, I am under no liability. Yeah, well, we have many bills auto-paid by that card every month (for the cashback, which seems may end soon with the new credit card law). When it was hijacked online a few years ago, it was a hassle and a half to change all those accounts to a new card number.

So I called Amazon. The guy barely spoke English. I have absolutely no problem if you don't speak my language, unless you are a customer service rep in the United States, trying to help me resolve a problem. So frustrating. Like Discover, he told me "just use your real account number." He said it is "completely secure and will absolutely never be compromised at Amazon.com." How awesome! They should teach other online merchants their security breakthrough so we can live in a hacker-free world of fairies and unicorns.

So I used my actual number for this particular purchase, and I am removing it from my Amazon account ASAP. I've sent an email to customer service at Amazon about it. We'll see what happens.