Where would you go to show ID? In many places in America, the closest telco customer service office may be a 2 hour drive away. Everyone saves time/money by being able to do it over the phone; but unfortunately the customer service reps are usually poorly trained.

Training shouldn't really be a factor here. The software systems shouldn't let social engineering hacks work. Why is the customer service rep allowed to override whatever prompt ask for a PIN number? If this override is really needed it should be a higher ranking support member or manager who can do this.

for practicality, you should be able to set your customer service security preferences to tighten or loosen this.

In your call with customer support, questions are asked to verify your identity.

They aren't as accurate as physically showing your ID, however. Not that I'd want my ID digitized though.

>Not that I'd want my ID digitized though.

Not that it isn't already. Every state's DMV has it, and there must be some kind of database/API that allows law enforcement to access it.