Wow - scary. Even though I live in a relatively "safe" city, I put my keys and credit card in my pocket and lock the car. It's sad, but that's what our world has come to...

Yes, NEVER leave your purse in the shopping cart, and also never leave it hanging over the back of your chair at a restaurant. Also in the ladies room stall, don't hang it on the top part of the hook where someone can reach over and grab it while you are unable to move. Put it on the bottom part of the hook or twist it to make it hard to pull off.

Beware out there...
{{gwi:317764}}

Hoovb is right. I was watching a spy movie where Angelia Jolie snatched a lady's coat from the restroom stall ...

I saw these wallets on sale at Walmart, the SHIELDED type you can put credit cards without someone "skimming" at a distance to make a duplicated card. My sister sent me this YouTube on "credit card skimming". Since I don't have the "shielded" wallet, I wrapped my credit card in aluminumm foil. Will have to shop for a "shielded" wallet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Credit card skimming

What a clever picture for the subject, Hoobv.

Thank you very much for posting this. I end up filling up every 4 days due to long commute, and I don't have a purse, but always have my company back-pack with my laptop in it on the passenger side. I'm now going to be conscious to ALWAYS have that passenger door locked during commuting.

Aluminum foil doenst protect against skimming, skimming is a result of a cloned card reader taking that info and storing it, most of these happen when your card is out of site, as in a restuarant, gas station ect, usually by a legal employee who has your card. In fact the vast majority of small time scammed cards are brick and mortor businesses, not internet or data transfer sites..

THE only thing you would worry about in case of stolen over the air cards is with your "contactless" cards (you know the ones that you can "wave" at something to pay with)

You can avoid getting these RFID chips competely, they are only abourt 3.5 % of the total amount of cards out there, dont bother with pass techonology, all of these machines have swipes on them.

If your worried about that, call your card company and request if your card is a RFID card or a contactless one, you can cancel it.

Shield, aluminum foil may or may not in fact protect you from scam readers.

There are a few misconceptions about cards now, federal law limits your liablity to 50.00, most MAJOR card companies do not hold you responsible at all, the way businesses report this fraud against you has changed as well. If the charge happened over the phone and internet, you have no liablity at all.

Unless they can prove that you knew about the charges and didnt contact them, if you do discover something, contact your card companies promptly.

This was mostly based on the poor folks who went through the early days , who were held liable and had thier poor credit wrecked becuase of it.

Its still wise to protect your cards as much as possible, but frankly, alot of people are more worried about things that will never happen "IE thier cards stolen over the internet somehow" then things that may happen, like some gas station shlep who just took your card #s and is going to have a good time tonight.

Silverkelt

I stopped carrying a purse long ago, when my shoulder collapsed from the weight! Now I use a fanny-pack and love it, it has these zip-parts that I can put all the stuff I need in, and I can let my shirt-blouse hang over it so it's not visible, and it goes right along w/me everywhere I go! sally

There are scanners now that thieves carry with them on the street. They walk up to someone with a bag, and hold their scanner near the bag for a second, and it scans the credit cards in the wallet. Actually, it scans anything with a bar code. They're so good that the victims don't even know they're doing anything. This was on 20/20 a few months ago. They had someone scan purses of women walking on the street and then asked the people if they knew they had been scanned and they were startled.

They said to get a metal wallet for credit cards to keep this from happening. I got one at Bed Bath & Beyond. I even keep my drivers license in it because it has a bar code and can be scanned, too.

Thank you, eahamel for that info. I used the wrong term "skimming" when I meant "scanning". That's the clip that I saw too, and regret that I didn't get a metal wallet from Walmart. I'm going to Walmart today, and if not found, I'll go to Bed & Bath Beyond.

I went to a cross body strap on all my purses a couple of years ago because I was very prone to putting my purse in the cart and then walking away to look at something on a shelf. Duh! I always lock my car door when I get out to pump gas. I turn off the engine, take the key out of the ignition, get out, close the door and THEN lock it with the key so I don't lock my self out either. Been there, done that, lol!

As for protecting your cards, credit, ID or whatever, well, as fast as they find ways to prevent it the crooks find new ways to get around it. You do what you can to protect yourself and hope for the best. I don't like the idea of living in constant fear of what "could" happen or being suspicious of everyone. Take precautions, be careful and conscientious but don't forget to live and enjoy life too!

I like Saldut's idea of fanny-pack. But my hips are skinny, so it slides down and I look like Western gun-slayer. I got a fabric purse that body-strap in front like Seil's. I got the purse for free when I donated to World Vision, it's made in Thailand and I got lost of compliments on the pretty fabric.

There are lots of bad folks who hit gas-stations. When I was pumping gas, a lady dressed like hooker brazenly asked everyone for "emergency cash" since she's stuck with no money for gas. I gave her $3, then I realized I was scammed. My brother, a doctor was traveling to a conference. He stopped by a gas-station, a guy came to harrass him for change. My brother ran immediately to his car, since he knew that if he pull out his wallet, the bum would grab it.

A few miles from where I live, in a bad section of town ... a daddy and his young son was not lucky. The Dad refused to yield his wallet at the gas station, and got shot. My brother-in-law, an oral surgeon in CA had to fix up a patient's mouth, who got shot since he refused to yield his wallet at a gas station.

I had a smart friend who grew up in New York City. This guy always carry an extra wallet with $10 cash, and some useless papers... so if confronted, he would give the "faked" wallet with $10 cash.

My dear mother-bless her heart- used to go to the senior citizens center downtown, and there was always some thief hanging around ready to snatch the purse....well, Mom always wore her 'travel girdle', a cloth affair with pockets, under her clothing, she put everything in there, but she also carried a ragged purse she would buy at the Sally-Ann, with some kleenex, an old bus schedule, a lipstick, small change and two $5. bills and a $1.bill...so if she were'snatched' it wouldn't be a real loss... She had learned to wear her 'travel girdle' when she had gone traveling after she retired, she went all over Europe on a Eur-rail pass, she went all over South America and even took a boat down the Amazon w/some students and they slept on the deck.... she especially loved England and stayed there several months, renting a small 'flat' and just living there awhile... she then went to France and did the same, staying there like a native....she said it is just as cheap that way as living at home, if you are careful and plan ahead..but she always kept her 'girdle' on even sleeping in it, it had her Passport and money, etc. etc. and she wasn't abt. to let that get stolen... it was just a cotton band w/pockets, abt. 6-8 inches deep, and it snapped and tied around the waist......sally