A few nights ago I went to eat dinner with my wife at an Outback restaurant. When I sat down at a table in the bar area, there, clear as day, was the visa card sales slip from the last customer. I could read clearly the customer's names and her full card number. It would have been very easy for me to get a knock-off card made and exploit this person.

There are plenty of more sophisticated ways for our card numbers to be stolen, but this is just plain stupidity. I always hand a sales slip in the restaurant directly to the head waiter; I never, ever leave it on the table, in a billfold or not. Having been a victim of identity fraud, this is one of the precautions I take. Granted the head waiter could be a problem, but it is less likely he/she will compromise your sensitive information than a random customer passing by the table and lifting the sales slip.

FWIW

-- Futureshock (gray@matter.think), February 20, 2000