At least in my experience the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe - I had access to a track 3 writer and had some fun copying my credit card info onto my driver license and swiping that.

> the "name on the machine" back then was just read from the magstripe.

It is (or was last time I played with card readers). But a person would sometimes use a stolen card with their name on the physical card so it matched their ID.

I guess people weren't updating it digitally? Maybe it was easier to just clone a card onto a card you already have?