Restaurants are often the source of stolen credit card information. The waiter takes your card when you pay and swipes it twice; once in the legitimate machine and once in a surprisingly small skimming machine that can be carried in a pocket. The waiter can make good money for each card that they swipe, and the result is that bad guys gather all the card information and make fake cards. It is good to see some of these people getting caught, but I think it is far more common than this one case represents.
Washington D.C. Restaurants Become Credit Card Cloning Hot Spots
With unobserved access to diner’s credit cards, restaurant wait staff have long been the source of a steady stream of stolen magstripe data. It takes only a second to swipe a customer’s card through a tiny skimming device purchasable over the internet, which is easily concealed in pocket or apron.
