Yes and this device is called a "skimmer". Skimmers are prevalent in cities such as Detroit and others. A skimmer is a very small box, some are slightly larger than a credit card. The fraudsters will take a job in a restaurant, gas station and other businesses that take credit cards often during the day. The fraudster takes the job principally to skim off people's credit card information. The look for a job wherein they can hide the skimmer either in their pocket or by a cash register. By a quick swipe of your credit card through their skimmer, they steal information: name, address, telephone number, credit limit and PIN- encoded within the credit cards. Unlike a typical credit card scanner used by legitimate businesses, the skimmer is not attached to either a phone fine or a cash register. At the end of the day when they go home, the fraudster will remove all the data from the skimmer electronically and will either load the data onto new credit cards which they sell to others or they go on a shopping spree by using the data which came off of your credit card. The best way to protect yourself is not to let your credit card out of your sight. Pay close attention to when you hand your credit card to a waiter or cash register operator. Keep an eye on your card and do not let it out of view even for a second.

Though it may appear that the bystander is deeply involved in their cell phone conversation, they are actually using the cell phone camera to snap digital pictures of your name, card number and expiration date off the front of your card. It is a type of spyware that tracks everything typed into your computer and reports it back to the fraudster via the Internet Then when you make an online purchase, the fraudster is able to obtain your credit card number.

Electronic commerce
Cellular telephones
Security programs