Bruce, I see that you and I are both suffering from alpha layer PNG death in our gravatars. After Gravatar switched from Rails to PHP, the PNG's were dropped. :(

We don't hear much about biometrics here. Only very little regarding passports & immigration. INS has my details since I applied to move here. I haven't flown international since fingerprint scanning and face - photo comparison is now part of entering and leaving the US for international travelers.

With all the security stuff that goes on we don't like to fly any more. Flying used to be fun, show up at the airport with 30 minutes before take off. Hop aboard. Now it is a real hassle. Can't park here, have to arrive 2-3 hours early, multiple checkpoints, can't take this, that, nor these things, ... shoes off, show us your laptop, show us your camera, pat down, swab your electronics & bag ...

Fortunately recently it hasn't been happening any more every trip; but I could swear I am on some profile list. There is no random in this happening half the time I set foot in an airport. If that were random I would be already be a multi-millionaire playing the lotto. Maybe I fit some international hacker profile with enormous wealth due to illegal and shady activities? WINK. While it is just the opposite. I couldn't be more average if I wanted to be, I think.

Several times I have been 'split off' from C to go to a max security line, while they let people they should be checking out walk through. Some of the things I have experienced and seen at TSA checkpoints is not the way they should go about it. And, let's not forget about maximum security applied to all law abiding passengers trying to get on the plane vs the open gates and minimal tot non-existent security for cargo, employee entrances, ... Anyway. There's a lot of controversy about security when it comes to airports, official buildings, etc.

Fortunately we rarely use ATMs, maybe once a year, and I'm aware of the scanner method ... but of course due to the fact that I use an ATM once a year I might easily miss the add-on.

Credit cards are an enormous business here so we just use a mix of credit cards (not everyone accepts all kinds and not all of them come with perks, protection, etc) as if they were debit cards.

Chip cards? What are those? Just kidding. I know about them, but in the US I haven't seen one yet.

Newer credit cards coming out have RFID so you only have to wave at the machine. This would help prevent cashier fraud and theft of the card (which we had once 5 years ago, clerk never gave the card back and during packing we forgot) The problem is that studies have shown that RFID is unsafe and your card can be copied over the air without swiping it. One of our credit card companies that is rolling out RFID credit cards denied safety issues when I wrote them about that study. If they force RFID upon us, I will just take my business elsewhere.

One simple measure credit card companies don't allow you to use here is to place your personal photo on the card. Credit card transactions are checked for signature, but a thief can't look like you. This would have helped with C's credit card theft, because the female thief was a teen and of color. The first merchant could have kept the card back based on the photo. Fortunately for us, the CC company did have an automated fraud alert system in place; and when three or four purchases were made in stores we had never shopped at, the merchant was prompted to and the card was held back. It took a few months to sort the charges out. All in all we were lucky.

Identity fraud is pretty big in the US, probably more so than ATM fraud, and we've taken some steps to reduce the chance of it happening. Shortly we will be placing account locks on our social security numbers. With that in place no new accounts or cards can be created, which is what the thieves are after.

It was little more than an annoyance, but ultimately someone's paying for all that fraud. I guess this post isn't so much a rant as a "public service announcement". I figured that by posting images of a skimmer (don't know if the device that got us was similar), the appalling statistics and those links to the "things you can do" sites I'd be doing my bit to raise public awareness.