Having done my time in the independent computer repair trenches with more than one restaurant as a customer, I can tell you that while secure, sophisticated car

Having done my time in the independent computer repair trenches with more than one restaurant as a customer, I can tell you that while secure, sophisticated card scanning equipment exists, much of the stuff used at mom & pop stores is rudimentary at best. Basic USB card swipers can be swapped out with zero change required in the software. None of this really matters though. What are the consequences of having your card skimmed? For the card holder, it's a mere inconvenience. The banks don't hold you accountable for the breech, because they know you'd never do business with them again. For the bank, it's only a small loss. They chargeback the transactions amounts to the vendor that took the card. The "victim" in this scenario is the merchant who accepted the stolen card. The risk associated with stolen credit card data is diffused this way. Merchants who don't want to assume the risk of accepting stolen credit cards can opt-in to far more stringent CC security practices like CVV2 codes and AVS (address verification). If you've ever had your CC number stolen, you know that the purchases are made overseas, or with shady merchants that don't opt-in for better security.