It’s funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. “Secrets of a former credit card thief”, by Michelle Crouch on CreditCards.com has many of the same principles as “Catch Me If You Can”, the story of Frank Abignal. Abignal’s book and movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio was a real life tale of crime involving fraudulent checks passed by Abignal and his ability to change identities and personas. He was chased by the FBI for years starting when Abignal was just a teenager. He was subsequently caught, convicted and forced to tell the secrets and provide the training to law enforcement to catch others. That relationship was pivotal in security changes within the banking industry.

Credit card skimming in the restaurant industry is becoming more exposed as higher dollar theft cases are being made against restaurant workers.  This time in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area, seven were charged with stealing customer credit card information from those they served in the restaurant.

OK, now this is getting scary. According to a newspaper article in The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, thieves are now using blue tooth technology in their credit card “skimming” crimes.  Credit card skimming is the crime of obtaining customer information from the magnetic stripe on the back of the credit card.  In retail shops and restaurants, dishonest employees handling customer credit card transactions swipe the card through a portable device that captures customer information.  They then usually sell the information to others in organized crime rings that create fraudulent credit cards in the customers’ names and buy expensive items or gift cards that are easily fenced for large profits. 

The Washington Post ran an article on May 24, 2010 with the Headline, “District Food Servers Charged in Theft of Patrons’ Credit Card Numbers”.   Three Cheesecake Factory workers were part of a larger ring that were allegedly stealing credit card information from customer’s they served in the restaurant.  When handling customer credit cards the workers also swiped the card through a portable electronic device commonly known as a “skimmer”.  The skimmer captured the customer information contained on the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.  The information was then sold to others to steal customer’s identity to make counterfeit credit cards to buy more than $117,000 in merchandise.  The U.S. Secret Service became involved when notified by CitiBank investigators of numerous fraudulent charges on cards that were used by customers at the restaurant.