Security Is Hard.
So, “Several hundred” victims of stolen card numbers at Canton Wisebuys (Canton is a hop away from us in Potsdam, for those “out there”).
This isn’t horribly surprising. While never a shopper there, I too have had a credit card that I handed to someone imprinted.
How does this happen? It’s pretty easy. Remember carbon paper? Anyone with some carbon paper behind the desk can quickly press your card against the clean side, and have an image on the paper underneath. That’s the low-tech way. The high-tech way required about $45 in electronic parts, reads the card when you swipe it, saves it, and THEN passes it on to the “real” reader to send off and be validated. Either way, the customer, unless very alert, will never know. I may know someone who attached similar things to ATM machines back in the mid-90’s as well, demonstrating how it can be done without _anyone_, the customer or the employees, to even realize it occurs.
Why? Trust. We inherently trust people we meet. They smile, we hand over plastic, they fiddle with it and hand it back with a smile. We trust. After all, they work at a brick-and-mortar store, and it’s the Evil Internet we have to be afraid of, right? 
So what can we do? You can curl up into the fetal position and be afraid of everything and everyone, or you can merely be skeptical and continue to live your life. Keep an eye on your credit card instead of handing it over and then turn around to continue gabbing with the 8 people you’re buying shoes with. Look at the thing that’s swiping your card: Does it look normal? Keep an eye on your statements- Amazingly the lionshare of victims like this don’t even realize until the police call them because they’ve found their credit card number, because a surprisingly large number of people don’t review their credit card statements: They buy 400 pairs of shoes a month and don’t even notice a some other purchases at stores they’ve never heard of, or a TV… They just pay the big bold number and move on.
Security is not easy. Security sure as Hell isn’t fun (as someone who does it for a living, it’s even LESS fun for me). But security isn’t just “my” job, it’s everyone’s job. It’s your job to notice when someone does something unscrupulous. Sure, you can whine about it later, or feel violated, but be vigilant- Catch the fuckers who abuse your trust.
