3. Skimming

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Many people wrongly believe that their credit card information is at risk only when they use it online to make a purchase. Technically-savvy criminals have come up with devices called skimmers which can read the vital information that’s encoded on a credit card’s magnetic strip. How often have you handed your credit or debit card over to a server in a restaurant and have them disappear in a back room to process the payment? It takes less than a second for a unscrupulous employee to run your card through a skimmer and capture the information they need to use your card to make purchases or even sell your information online to other criminals.