Dan Abel > wrote:

> Dave Smith > wrote:

>> For my two cents..... any business caught skimming money through bank cards
>> or credit cards should automatically be cut off those service.

>I suspect that it is seldom the business. They need to stay in
>business. It is the employees. They lose their job? Well, they just
>get another one. They take your credit card and stop off at the
>restroom. Once the stall door is locked, they have everything.

>Doesn't sound like it was the case for you, but it happens.

I read of one case where a restautant employee carefully stole
just a few credit card numbers per month, and after about a year
had passed and he had left that job, he hit all the stolen cards
all at once.

It took some amount of time (months) for credit-industry computers
to notice that an unusual amount of fraud had occured at cards
used at one restaurant.

This is among the many simple schemes that a European-style PIN
would protect against. But U.S. banks reckon U.S. consumers would
rather shoulder the cost of fraud than punch in a PIN.

Steve