Identity Theft at Metro Diner?

[Captain Zissou]

Will this location also include the San Marco location's identity theft problems???  I know a dozen people that have had their credit card info stolen.

[Captain Zissou]

This was happening from August through early November. 

[copperfiend]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll pay in cash.

[undergroundgourmet]

It happened to a group of my friends also.(credit card theft) When phone calls were placed to the Metro the owner hung up.

[ChriswUfGator]

Will this location also include the San Marco location's identity theft problems???  I know a dozen people that have had their credit card info stolen.

Make it a dozen +1. And it's still happening...

I have eaten there twice in the past 6-7 months. The first time, I paid with my AmEx chargecard and then a couple weeks afterwards I get a call from AmEx saying they had shut down my card and were sending me a new one because someone tried to swipe it at a kiosk in the UK to buy a train pass at the same time I was using the same card to buy a Starbucks in Ormond Florida. Obviously someone stole the number and made a fake/cloned card. I didn't think much of that, and figured maybe it was an online data breach or something. That AmEx charge is what I use to pay for pretty much everything, so it really could have been anywhere that the number got stolen, or so I thought.

But then the next time I went back to Metro Diner, I used my Citi american airlines credit card. The only reason I even have this card is because it waives baggage fees and because AA made a new rule that your AAdvantage miles expire if you don't have any mileage account activity in I think it's something like every 12 months. So the couple miles that you get from buying something with that credit card count as a transaction when they get deposited into your AAdvantage account. That way my 101k mileage balance won't get taken away from me. I don't fly AA anymore, they just don't have the options from JAX that US has, but I'm going to use those miles one day!! Anyway, aside from that one purpose, this card sits in a drawer and never gets used for anything, ever. I brought it along to use specifically to make one transaction as I approaching the 12 month mark on mileage expiration again.

Then I got a call about a month later from Citi saying someone was trying to buy a bunch of stuff on the internet that was outside my spending pattern and would I verify the charges before they would let them through. There were like 20 different transactions, and not a single one was mine. They flagged the card and sent me a new one.

Now THAT stuck in my memory, because this year that card had expired on its own and Citi had sent me a new card in the mail. The new card had a different expiration date, a different set of verification numbers, etc. That new card had not been used a single time, anywhere, except for the one meal at Metro Diner.

So after that, I knew exactly where it had happened. That also reminded me of what happened with my AmEx, shortly after using it to pay for a meal there. I'm not sure if someone has a card swiper on their phone or palm pilot or whatever and is stealing the numbers that way, or if their computer terminals have a worm (more common than you'd think) and are giving out the data to some hacker. But I can assure you it's DEFINITELY Metro Diner, and they have an extremely serious problem with this.

Word to the wise; NEVER use a debit card there. Debit cards do not have the same federal fraud liability protections as credit or charge accounts, and during the time it takes to sort everything out, it's your money missing from your account with a debit card, and the bank's money tied up when it's a credit card.

But yeah, this place has a serious problem with ID theft.

[mtraininjax]

Metro Diner off the list except paying cash. Never had an issue with this in Avondale or Riverside, but maybe I'm just lucky!

[Dog Walker]

Just got off the phone with a friend of mine who just had this happen to him at 'town in Avondale.  He gave his AmEx card to the server before the dessert course to keep his friend from grabbing the check.  It was out of his hands for about thirty minutes.

The next day he's looking at his charges and finds $1 charged at 'town and later that night $2500 run through Paypal on that card for some electronics company in California.  A call to AmEx stopped the charge, but they said it would take a couple of days to research the party involved through Paypal.

He thinks the $1 charge was to see what the credit limit on the card was.

In most places in Europe, they come to your table with a handheld device that runs your card without it leaving your sight.

Be careful out there!

[copperfiend]

I had something similar happen to me after eating at a restaurant at the beach. I pay with my credit card and the next morning I had two charges overnight at Wal-Mart's website for about 80 bucks a piece.

[simms3]

I would be careful at retailers, too.  They have gotten better at security, but there is a brief split second when they swipe your card where your information is vulnerable and is not protected.  I have heard of people just chilling in wi-fi zones (or even creating their own traveling wi-fi) and snatching the cc info this way.  But, on a one-on-one basis, I know most waiters are honest, hard workers, but many there sure are some unscrupulous waiters at restaurants all over.  And I have heard of fast food employees with mini thumb cameras that snap cc info front and back while they swipe your card (I have actually heard of this happening a lot).

Unless you're going to use the info yourself and the card happens to have a lot of money on it/a huge credit amount and you have the capabilities of making a fake card for that account, one cc info or debit card is not worth that much on the black market to sell.  Usually these people try to get a couple hundred card numbers and then sell them online (which is why an employee steals your cc info and a month later someone in the UK is using it).

[mtraininjax]

Cash at 'town now too. Sadly, its not the places that are the issue, its the people in them, and not always the wait staff, cause someone could take a picture with a camera and its see-ya with your credit card.

[uptowngirl]

Uggh Mom and Dad just took me to breakfast at Metro Diner I think they used their card :-(

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Thumb Cameras - you're kidding right?

How about a USB magnetic strip reader plugged into your smartphone?

Magstripe Reader USB HID Device - 3 Track IDTech HEN3331-12U
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The minimag compact magnetic stripe reader can read 1, 2, or 3 tracks of magnetic stripe information. in addition, it has full data editing capabilities. when connected to the host computer as a keyboard wedge, the minimag is completely compatible with th
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Add to shopping list indeed. 


and how about putting your backpack with a reciever at the hostess stand to steal RFID chipped cards' info as people walk through the door?

Socket CF RFID Reader Card 6E - RFID reader - contactless - CompactFlash Card - Plug-in module from Socket Mobile in Input Adapters
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Now add high frequency RFID capabilities to your mobile data collection application with Socket's CompactFlash RFID Reader Card. This product reads and writes to all ISO 15693 and many proprietary 13.56Mhz RFID tags being used or deployed for asset tracking, access control, process control, healthcare and pharmaceutical applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_identity_theft

Overview

Wireless identity theft is a relatively new technique of gathering an individual's personal information from RF-enabled cards carried on a person in their access control, credit, debit, or government issued identification cards.[6] Each of these cards carry a Radio frequency identification chip which responds to certain radio frequencies. When these "tags" come into contact with radio waves, they respond with a slightly altered signal. The response can contain encoded personal identifying information, including the card holder's name, address, Social Security Number, phone number, and pertinent account or employee information.

Upon capturing (or 'harvesting') this data, the thief is then able to program their own cards to respond in an identical fashion (via 'cloning'). Many sites are dedicated to nothing but teaching people how to perform this act, as well as supplying the necessary equipment and software.[7][8]

The financial industrial complex is currently migrating from the use of magnetic stripes on debit and credit cards which technically require a swipe through a magnetic card swipe reader. These transactions take approximately 48 seconds, whereas the newer radio frequency tagged card transactions require approximately 12 seconds.[citation needed] The number of transactions per minute can be increased, and more transactions can be processed in a shorter time, therefore making for arguably shorter lines at the cashier.[9]

And ya'll thought that carbon imprints wre bad....

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Now that we've covered the hardware, we collect some rather easy to get software....

Enlarge Image Intuit, Inc. New Intuit Inc. Quickbooks Credit Card Processing Kit Verify Credit Card Information
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then we spend a few bucks setting up a shell corporation, collect our data, process the cards, collect the money and fold the company, repeat, reuse, rewash.

[Lunican]

This is why I use a credit card and never a debit card.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

This is why I use a credit card and never a debit card.

This is why 90% of the time I only use my debit card at the ATM that serves my bank and pay cash everywhere.