As someone who used to investigate these types of crimes, here are a few basics;

1-Treat your credit card like it is your wallet. Would you hand over your wallet to a complete stranger and watch them leave your site? Accordingly, use your card where you are the one swiping it or the person is swiping it within your sightline. Don’t hand it to a waiter or waitress unless the machine is visible to you.

2- If you go away on a trip and you use the card a lot you can always call the card company and have them issue a new set of numbers for you for free. You get a great piece of mind out of this for maybe a two day inconvenience.

3- Monitor your transaction activity online at least every day or two- easy enough to do in this day and age.

4- I have not had an issue with amazon.com, but don’t be afraid to change your password(s) at least quarterly for online sites that store your card information.

Prepaid/gift cards are great for using with untrusted online merchants. Some credit card companies allow you to make virtual credit card numbers for one time use.

Thanks Dave good advice...

Dave. About number 2. I have done this if I go out of the country. But what about on vacation in the USA?

I have changed my card numbers after completing a Florida vacation. It is always a good idea when you are using the card multiple times on a trip and not a bad idea to do annually on your cards. It is really no different then when you change a password on an account...you are just changing the numbers on your existing account and usually will have the updated card in your hands within 2 days.

Be careful when ordering over the phone from Classic Pizza. They store and print the credit card numbers and expiration dates on every order delivered to that address

I've deleted several comments that were wildly off-topic. Please try to comment on what the blog is about - ways to limit your exposure - as opposed to offering non-relevant political opinions or unhelpful, obvious advice. (Example: "Best way to avoid a car crash??? Don't drive!")

PayPal is one of the safest ways to make purchases online. I have used PayPal for over 8 years without a single issue. The phishing problem you described seem to be from your own doing and had nothing to do with PayPal. Amazon as well is extremely secure. I make purchases every week at Amazon and have never had a single issue. I have had two fraudulent credit card issues in the last 8 years and neither of them came from PayPal or Amazon. In both cases Citizens Bank and Amex caught them in progress and I was not out one dime.

Very informative! Thank you.

Log onto your credit card account at morning coffee that way only one or two days can elapse before you spot any unauthorized charges. Also, my credit cards set up to send an email when anything over a certain amount happens. I think I have it set for $50 or $100. Now vote Romney 2012. Or Obama 2012! lol

I'd also suggest that, your careful when putting personal data out there, such as facebook. Good counterfit criminals can find your SS# just by knowing your name, birthdate and hometown, careful with that as well.

I just had two "digital" purchases charged to my debit from Amazon that I did not purchase. The person ordered them on a Friday, apparently downloaded them for their own use, and my debit account is not updated by the bank until Monday, which is when I saw it. Amazon had no explanation as to how someone was able to do this, but refunded by money w/o questions. Don't store your credit card with on line stores.

Dave seems to be a little out of date. A lot, maybe most merchants have a print out of the day's transactions, this includes CC #s and exp dates. So, even though you think you are crafty watching the cashier's every move or maybe you try to black out the numbers on the signed copy....they can just reprint it. Your copy only has the last 4 numbers, there's has it all.

Another way that credit cards are compromised, probably what Karen is concerned about, is though fake e-mails. In about an hour, I can make a copy of a legit website that looks real but send me all the info entered. I would send you what appears to be a standard e-mail requesting you update your info, you click the link to say www.amazon.co (no m) and with one click you send me your whole life story.

Another doozy is when someone actually does get your name and password for say paypal, you think you are safe by simply changing your password. Little did you know, it wasn't the paypal account they took your info from, it was from your e-mail! Someone can get ahold of your e-mail credentials and add their own e-mail address as a secondary forwarding address. So, when you changed your paypal password, the thief just got an update of your changed password to his e-mail address.

Then there is wifi. Unlocked wifi is great. It lets everyone in the neighborhood attempt to get into your computer. Even if you have it password protected, someone with persistence can attempt to brute force your password.Tolstoy'd

I've deleted a spam comment from this article.

There are technologies in the market place now that allow the issuers to decline transactions when a cloned or skimmed card is presented for use. One example is MagnePrint®. Think of it like a fingerprint, but a fingerprint of the actual magnetic stripe (not the data encoded onto the stripe, but the stripe material itself). No two are the same and they cannot be duplicated.

MagnePrint already exists on every magnetic stripe card ever issued because it is a naturally occurring property that is part of the card from the moment the card is manufactured. It’s already in your wallet.

Megan from http://paydayloansat.com/

Thank you, Megan. But if MagnePrint is already there, how do you activate it? In each case, my bank has blocked the transaction, but I have had to cancel the card and get a new one.