[elliottcarlson]

This all happened around her lunch break - so it is very possible that no one was in the room to see it, or the few people remaining didn't notice it. This girl who stole the card was the one sitting right next to her - so it was pretty easy to lean down unnoticed.

Honestly - I don't know what her moms charges were - all I know is that the detective on the case mentioned that when he followed up with us post the girls arrest.

Luckily there were no successful charges made - the first three attempts were all for PS3s at GameStop, Target and BestBuy - then it seems she went to the grocery store and attempted to buy a small purchase of gum and soda (according to the police, this is to test if the card is working). We did get a payment of the stolen cash which we valued at $10 (it probably was closer to $8, but we weren't certain and we were told to round it to $10 then). No additional compensation though on top of that.

[zerr]

Hm, interesting. The place where I live, one is required to enter a PIN code when you buy something in the physical shop. Shops have terminals for that.

[elliottcarlson]

Unfortunately the personal security measures on credit cards are very poor in America - I remember even little things like having a persons picture on bank cards in Belgium was a huge step up compared to the cards here. Even online banking here is pretty bad - so many banks still only allow 4 digit pins (often with "safety measures" in place to restrict your options, like reusing numbers, or disallowing years - thus making the available pin pool significantly smaller), and for online banking the security options are often a joke too, such as low maximum character lengths, not allowing anything but a restricted set of characters and simply converting your password to lowercase.

I don't know if this is to keep things "convenient" to the consumer, but I never feel secure in the way my money is handled.

[rmc]

Are you in Europe (like me)? Chip and Pin credit cards are common here. But they are not common in USA. It causes no end of problems for American tourists who come here, since their cards don't work in many shops.

[zerr]

Yup, in Georgia.

[ZoFreX]

Where do you live? I keep hearing comments saying we are "required" to enter a pin in the UK, but we're not. If the chip fails you can swipe and sign.

[zerr]

Georgia, eastern Europe. Never had a chance to experience a failing of a chip though.