Identity Theft at Metro Diner?

[BridgeTroll]

I've been meaning for quite some time now to look into portable handheld credit / debit terminals for Orsay.

Do it Brian!

[danno]

They use them in Austrailaia, New Zealand and South Africa.  They also make it easier if you need to split the check and include a tip.  We just told the server how much we were each paying.

[ChriswUfGator]

Depending on the sophistication of whoever's interested in stealing card numbers, the wireless terminals can be a lot less safe than trusting your servers. I think the system in the US works by and large pretty well, once you report it as theft (actually in my case the bank caught it way before I even did) you get credited for all the charges. The terminals in the EU can use types of encryption we can't here, because our cards do not contain the embedded microchips that make it possible like theirs do. So you'd be wirelessly transmitting card data with standard encryption, which hasn't worked out that great for organizations like Best Buy, Target, etc., who had a lot more money to throw at that problem than restaurants do. I'd think you're still safest using a landline or ethernet connected terminal setup.

The issue in this case isn't security or encryption or anything else anyway, it's Metro Diner. I must know 3 or 4 people personally who've had their card numbers stolen there now, and it happened to me personally twice. And that doesn't even include the other people in this thread who have also had their card information stolen there. The owner is an arrogant jerk about it, hangs up the phone if you try to talk to him about what's happening. That is the part of the system that isn't working in this case, the merchant is aware of what's happening but seems perfectly fine with it. Under those circumstances, it doesn't matter what you do as far as electronic gizmos go, because if management is fine with letting someone circumvent them (or else is in on it) then it's still going to happen anyway.

Which is why I will only pay cash at Metro Diner, in the unlikely event I ever go there again.