When you pay by credit card in a restaurant, have you ever wondered what they do with your card when they take it from you to collect payment? Although you may trust the restaurant, there’s still the possibility the waiters can write your credit card and verification number down and sell the info later.

Apparently in the UK and other European areas, this is not the case. Ira Winkler at the RSA blog recently wrote about an experience traveling and noticing other credit card customs and security -

If you are at a restaurant and pay with a credit card, they bring over a system and swipe your card in front of you. Additionally, all the credit card readers I came in contact with assumed that credit cards were smart cards with readable chips. This adds another level of security, and PINs were required as well. When I was in The Netherlands a few months ago, I couldn’t even use my American credit card on the ticket machines for their train system.

With all of the credit card fraud going on, I wonder when the US will finally get its act together and follow the European credit card security measures.

Read the full article here.