[NA] Weird new credit card fraud thing? [/NA]

Five years ago, I was returning a C-172 to Arrow Aviation at DXR, and the owner says "Master Card is looking for you."
I immediately called them and they wanted to know if I had purchased 2, one way tickets to Yemen for an 11:30 AM flight that morning.
Not a chance, says I.
A couple hours later, I get a call from Master Card telling me the alleged perpetrators have been arrested at the airport, a new credit card is on it's way to me, and they know that my card number had been stolen by an employee at a restaurant where we had eaten dinner a week earlier. The police were looking for that person, also.
There have been a couple of other incidents over the years.
Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but when I pay for anything with a credit card, I personally carry it to wherever they are going to complete the transaction and watch them do it.
 
For ATM's, I just use the ATM's at my bank locations. Because both ATM's and gas pumps have a history of being skimmed.
Several years ago, some of the ATM's near me switched from inserting your card perpendicular to the slot to inserting your card parallel to the slot in an effort to make it harder to skim. Since then, I've favored those machines over the traditional ones. Gas pumps (most notably Costco) can now tap to pay.
 
To close the loop, the fanny pack vendor sent me a prepaid return label, so that will be the only extra cost anyone involved with this will incur. I have taken the above advice and am moving all my recurring charges over to one card that will not be used for anything else, to at least minimize the future pain, since I am sure this will happen again.
 
If you haven’t already done so, put a freeze on your credit reports.
 
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