Swiping credit card at restaurant table can preclude skimming, cheating

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | July 26, 2007 | Patricia Sabatini

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Every think twice about handing over a credit or debit card to your restaurant server when paying the check? Maybe you should. While most of the time the payment goes through just fine, when your card leaves your sight, nasty things can happen. Occasionally, crooks use devices called skimmers to steal account information that's embedded in a card's magnetic stripe, which they sell or use to make counterfeit cards to raid a bank account or run up fraudulent bills.

It's estimated 70 percent of that type of card fraud, known as skimming, happens in restaurants, one of the last places where customers give their cards to someone who disappears into a back room to process the transaction.

In 2001, a credit card ring that involved wait staff stole information from customers at Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen in North Fayette and, prosecutors said, and made fraudulent purchases totaling $16,861.

That's not the only type of skulduggery that can happen. Ever hear of tip fraud? It happens when a server alters the tip when entering the final bill in the payment system. You could be charged an extra 50 cents, a few bucks or more, but unless you cross-check your receipts with your monthly statements, you probably wouldn't catch it.

Now, a new technology is being pushed by payment systems giant Verifone that's designed to speed transactions and combat fraud by keeping cards in customers' hands.

[longtermmemmory]

More than a few banks offer 100% guarantee in the event of a fraud which means zero deductable.

Competition in the marketplace is good.

[Larry Lucido]

“I just tipped $5.00. I’m ruined!” LOL!

[Larry Lucido]

Unfortunately, the knockoff “Willard organizer” won’t help someone with no sense of humor.

[Red in Blue PA]

I would like to see someone try to make good if their account is wiped out by a debit card.

Color me very skeptical of banks. (only use a credit union myself)

[Red in Blue PA]

“Basically there is no risk to using a credit card,” says Schultheis. Federal consumer protection law limits the liability to $50. “Few issuers even impose the $50,” he adds.

Under the same scenario, many debit card issuers also assume the liability, but with qualifications. “Card companies advertise zero liability. But read the fine print,” advises Fox. Generally, the issuer requires notification within 48 hours of the occurrence. That window can close before a cardholder ever realizes there is a problem.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11726422/

[sitetest]

ROTFLMAO!!

[Kaylee Frye]

I love USAA! And I do the same thing... :)

The only time we ever had our credit card info stolen though was when we moved up here from GA. We used the Discover exclusively for the trip. Discover refunded 100% of the bad charges, no questions asked. The biggest frustration was getting a new card...

[from occupied ga]

back atcha

[Nonstatist]

A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. (And their increasing number of friends) However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.

Is this your reference? If not, I guess I'm totally lost..

[scan59]

I do the same, except I write "on table" on the tip line, which probably elicits snickers from the staff after I've left, but oh, well.

That's a good idea. I also only tip with cash, but have wondered if drawing a line through the cc card tip section looks like I'm stiffing the waitress when I go up to the counter to pay. (Like at a Denny's.)

I also keep my cc recipts until they've posted and I can review them online.

[longtermmemmory]

actually I have seen it done multiple times when a bank restores money to criminally used debit cards. It is not that onerous a process.

[Larry Lucido]

Sorry. It’s from this episode of Seinfeld:

Old Man: “Hey, Morty, what’s wrong with these tip calculators?”
Morty: “What are you talking about?”
Old Man: “It’s overtipping. I just left five bucks for a BLT.”
Morty: “This isn’t a Wizard, it’s a Willard.”
Jerry: “A Willard? Saccamano, Sr. screwed me!”
Old Man #2: “Mine doesn’t have a seven!”
Old Man #3: “I’m ruined!”
Morty: “Jerry, why didn’t you get them Wizards?”
Jerry: “Because a real Wizard’s two hundred dollars.”
Morty: “You didn’t have a deal?”
Jerry: “No deal. Not hot.”
Old Man: “Morty, you, and Kramer, you’re finished.”
Kramer: “What?”
Old Man: “Everyone vote for the guy in the wheelchair.”
Kramer, getting up to leave: “Well, the people have spoken. Well, that’s it
for me. I’m, I’m headin’ back to New York.”
Jerry: “Dad, I’m sorry.”
Morty: “You should be! How could you spend two hundred dollars on a tip
calculator?!”
Jerry: “It does other things!”

[Old Professer]

That’s different from swiping ashtrays and salt shakers, I assume.

[Old Professer]

Our debit card is protected as though it were a credit card.

[Old Professer]

We tip the pizza delivery boy the current amount equal to a gallon of gasoline.