Identity Theft?

[Matthew Jones]

A man sits in his dark basement. He orders a 25 dollar USB magnetic strip reader that captures the code off of any magnetic strip of any card. His software that costed less than 200 dollars translates it into readable code. He spends less than 300 dollars on a printer that is used for ingraving.

 

You take a fellow client out to lunch to discuss business. You pay because we all know we get to write them off on our taxes ;)  and you hand your waitor your card ( The bum in his basement) pulls out the strip reader and swipes your card. He lets you pay for the meal and you head back to the office like a normal day. A few hours later he gets home and transfers your credit card data into his software. Three hours later he has cloned your credit card. He now has your business credit hanging by his fingers. He has your address, your DOB, and most likely your SSN.

 

This is a genaric and one of the most common moves from an identity theif. That might sound really confusing but I can assure you that within six hours a 12 year old kid could be taught how to do this. This is a problem we as business owners, and every day people faceeveryday.

It may be a little bit of a pain, but those disposable credit cards you can buy or so called "cash cards" can be great for situations like taking a client out to lunch or small purchases. They are easy to get, secure in most cases, but allow you to put a small amount of cash on them just for small purchases.