Just want to relate this story from a place I used to play. There was a waitress there that would take the credit cards to the waitress station, call her home, leave a message on her machine with name, card number and expiration date, and then go home and shop the card to death for one night and then erase the tape. (Yes, tape. It was a long time ago.) She was finally busted when a man who used his company card that he used ONLY for dining saw charges from clothing catalog stores. He traced back by the charge date to where it was last used. The owner of the place had 3 other callers complaining about the same thing. Then he invited all 4 of them to come in and had them identify the girl. He seated them and had the waitress assigned to the table. Those customers also brought back the credit card statements that put them at the restaurant on a specific day and their credit card bills that saw charges that night after the palce closed. Police took her away for questioning, obtained a search warrant, got telephone records, and were able to get a confessions from her. She was charged with grand theft (her total from the scam was well over $10,000 over several months). So diligence is required on our part, but it is safe. In fact it is safer to use a credit card online than to hand it to a stranger in a restaurant, though most people who are not involved with the technical side will never believe that.