• Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    This is like when I was in my twenties working at a crappy grocery store with a MoneyGram inside of it. I live in Washington state, and at the time, if your last name was less than five characters, you would have asterisk’s in your license number. The MoneyGram system wanted people’s license numbers but was unable to recognize a license with an asterisk. It happened pretty rarely, but it always happened to people whose last names were four characters or less long. Five letters in your last name and you were gold. To make the transactions happen, I would just do the whole license number minus the asterisk.

    Anyway, Washington changed how it generates license numbers so its a moot point anyway but I don’t think MoneyGram ever spent a dime to fix this since it only affected a small number of people in one US state.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Are you saying that your driver’s license number contains your name? Do you get a new number if you change your name?

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        Some states base it on your name in some ways. Mine used to have (maybe still do but I don’t live there anymore) letters from first and last names plus birth date as most of the number. I assume if you change your name your number changes as well.