The presently claimed invention relates generally to confirming that a user has physical custody of an article (e.g., credit card, identification document, etc.). One claim recites a method reciting: at a user's home, presenting a physical article to an input device; and, after the presenting, receiving device data at a CPU at said user's home; deriving a reduced-bit representation of the device data; by reference to at least some of said reduced-bit representation of the device data, confirming that the user has physical custody of the physical article, the physical article having an identifier associated therewith; and providing said identifier to a remote terminal once physical custody of the physical article is confirmed. Of course, additional combinations and claims are provided as well.