Lancet Jades
01-28-2004, 01:52 PM
Bank's barking up the wrong tree
It's a dog day for Chase Manhattan, which credits Livermore pooch with $1,500
By Mike White, STAFF WRITER
LIVERMORE -- Every dog has its day, and Clifford's time came this month when he got his first credit card in the mail.
The only problem: Clifford really is a dog.
The 21/2-year-old pug received a Chase Manhattan Bank Platinum Mastercard with a spending limit of $1,500.
His owners -- Steve Borba, a telecommunications phone installer, and wife Diana, a mortgage broker -- were surprised, to say the least, when they opened the mail and found the new credit card under the name Clifford J. Dawg. But Borba, 25, knew what had happened.
Recently, Borba had ordered parts online for his 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and started receiving tons
of junk e-mail. So he set up a free
e-mail account under the name cliffordjdawg@hotmail.com (cliffordjdawg@hotmail.com), thinking if he ordered more parts he would provide that e-mail address instead of his personal one.
Soon, he began receiving junk e-mail
addressed to his dog.
Three weeks later, he received an e-mail from Chase Manhattan Bank saying Clifford J. Dawg had been pre-approved for a credit card.
Borba responded by saying Dawg worked at Pupperoni Factory (Cliff's favorite dog treat) and that his mother's name was Pugsy Malone. Borba even added this note, "You are sending an application to a dog! Ha ha ha."
Apparently no one read the entire response -- the credit card soon showed up in the mail.
He called the company the day after receiving the card to cancel it. The person he talked to explained the name Clifford J. Dawg had been acquired from a list and the company might want to use the snafu in a commercial.
The company representative suggested this as a slogan: "Dogs don't chase us, we chase them," Borba said.
Clifford is not the only dog to receive a credit card.
A dog in the north of England was offered his own credit card with a limit of $24,600 -- and free air miles, according to a news service report. That credit card application was addressed to a Shih-Tzu named Monty.
It's a dog day for Chase Manhattan, which credits Livermore pooch with $1,500
By Mike White, STAFF WRITER
LIVERMORE -- Every dog has its day, and Clifford's time came this month when he got his first credit card in the mail.
The only problem: Clifford really is a dog.
The 21/2-year-old pug received a Chase Manhattan Bank Platinum Mastercard with a spending limit of $1,500.
His owners -- Steve Borba, a telecommunications phone installer, and wife Diana, a mortgage broker -- were surprised, to say the least, when they opened the mail and found the new credit card under the name Clifford J. Dawg. But Borba, 25, knew what had happened.
Recently, Borba had ordered parts online for his 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and started receiving tons
of junk e-mail. So he set up a free
e-mail account under the name cliffordjdawg@hotmail.com (cliffordjdawg@hotmail.com), thinking if he ordered more parts he would provide that e-mail address instead of his personal one.
Soon, he began receiving junk e-mail
addressed to his dog.
Three weeks later, he received an e-mail from Chase Manhattan Bank saying Clifford J. Dawg had been pre-approved for a credit card.
Borba responded by saying Dawg worked at Pupperoni Factory (Cliff's favorite dog treat) and that his mother's name was Pugsy Malone. Borba even added this note, "You are sending an application to a dog! Ha ha ha."
Apparently no one read the entire response -- the credit card soon showed up in the mail.
He called the company the day after receiving the card to cancel it. The person he talked to explained the name Clifford J. Dawg had been acquired from a list and the company might want to use the snafu in a commercial.
The company representative suggested this as a slogan: "Dogs don't chase us, we chase them," Borba said.
Clifford is not the only dog to receive a credit card.
A dog in the north of England was offered his own credit card with a limit of $24,600 -- and free air miles, according to a news service report. That credit card application was addressed to a Shih-Tzu named Monty.