n. The act of stealing credit card data by swiping the card through a machine that reads information on the magnetic strip.
1999
Credit-card fraud, which the CBA reckons amounted to at least $162-million in the 12-month period ending March 31, is not new.
Nor is the creation of counterfeit credit cards. Through a technique known as double-swiping, a crooked merchant can duplicate the data on a credit card through an illegal device the size of a cigarette lighter that transmits the information and allows it to be copied.
"Skimming," as the operation is dubbed, has been a growing problem since 1997 and represented about half of all that $162-million.
Nor is the creation of counterfeit credit cards. Through a technique known as double-swiping, a crooked merchant can duplicate the data on a credit card through an illegal device the size of a cigarette lighter that transmits the information and allows it to be copied.
"Skimming," as the operation is dubbed, has been a growing problem since 1997 and represented about half of all that $162-million.
1999
A former waiter at a Manhattan restaurant charged last week with swiping credit card information is the latest perpetrator of "skimming," the fastest-growing area of credit card fraud, the Secret Service says.
1980 (earliest)
A study several years ago by Frost & Sullivan, New York, found that information on how to produce fraudulent credit cards or skim data from magnetic tape on cards was being circulated freely in prisons.