Avoiding Restaurant Identity Theft

Hand-held Credit Card Terminal

NBC has reported that waiters at some of New York City's top restaurants have engaged in credit card identity theft of over a million dollars. The danger of such theft occurs every time  a customer turns over his credit card to a waiter or waitress who takes the card out of sight of the customer. The waiter can then scan the card with his smartphone as he prepares the customer's receipt. He can then use the info himself to purchase a big screen TV from Amazon or sell the information to an identity-theft ring.


Having spent two weeks in France recently, I was fascinated to observe how French waiters handled credit cards. When the customer had looked over his bill, the waiter would come to the table with a small,  hand-held device, swipe the card, return the card to the customer, print out a receipt for the customer to sign, and a 2nd receipt for the customer to keep. The credit card is never out of the customer's sight. These small hand-held readers were used everywhere, from fine Parisian restaurants, side-walk cafes, to small unknown restaurants in small towns.


My question:  if they are really serious about counteracting identity theft, why don't American Credit Card Companies and restaurants use this  technology?  I suspect the initial cost is not much different than the hard-wired systems they are currently using.


Perhaps, as consumers and customers,  we should begin demanding this basic security.