That's pretty terrible, but I'd say it's still more secure than most of the ways I transfer my credit card number. Twice I've needed a tow truck, and both times would you like to know how they charged my card? By picking up their radio and reading off all my info to the main office. All I'd need is a scanner to get dozens of valid credit card numbers a day.
A waiter stealing credit card numbers has a good chance of being caught eventually. I assume the credit card companies do some basic data mining on their stolen card database, and if card numbers start getting stolen shortly after dining at a particular establishment then they'll track this down.
I googled "waiter stealing credit card numbers" and here's an example from today's news of some folks who got caught:
On the other hand if you have a radio scanner and are picking up numbers going over the air from tow truck companies there's no traceable link between you and anything in the database.
No, but there'd be a link to tow-truck companies in your area, and perhaps their not-exactly-PCI-compliant handling of credit-card numbers would be exposed.
My practice is to give my card to anyone who asks for it when I'm in a frame of mind to expect someone to do so (after I finish eating at a restaurant, for instance). Observation suggests basically everyone follows the same policy.
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That's pretty terrible, but I'd say it's still more secure than most of the ways I transfer my credit card number. Twice I've needed a tow truck, and both times would you like to know how they charged my card? By picking up their radio and reading off all my info to the main office. All I'd need is a scanner to get dozens of valid credit card numbers a day.
I once gave my card to a waiter.
A waiter stealing credit card numbers has a good chance of being caught eventually. I assume the credit card companies do some basic data mining on their stolen card database, and if card numbers start getting stolen shortly after dining at a particular establishment then they'll track this down.
I googled "waiter stealing credit card numbers" and here's an example from today's news of some folks who got caught:
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0510/739156.html
On the other hand if you have a radio scanner and are picking up numbers going over the air from tow truck companies there's no traceable link between you and anything in the database.
No, but there'd be a link to tow-truck companies in your area, and perhaps their not-exactly-PCI-compliant handling of credit-card numbers would be exposed.
Who says it would be in your area though? You could travel the country and probably find hundreds of instances of this sort of thing happening.
Three times in my life, I wrote up all the information needed to debit every last penny in my bank account and handed it to someone I had never met.
Then I stopped using checks.
My practice is to give my card to anyone who asks for it when I'm in a frame of mind to expect someone to do so (after I finish eating at a restaurant, for instance). Observation suggests basically everyone follows the same policy.
When I worked at Radioshack, I had access to the database of receipts with the credit card information stored on them.
i regularly give my credit card number over the phone for restaurant delivery.
The CC number is almost never secure.