Oregon Police looking for credit card cloners - Tucson News Now

Oregon Police are looking for a pair of suspects they say used someone else's credit card information to do $784 worth of shopping.

"The victim is still in possession of the credit card, so this would be a cloned credit card, where they are only in possession of the victim's credit card number," explained Det. Ryan Spangler.

This is the second case of credit card cloning in the last two weeks. Two women were caught on camera shopping with a cloned card recently, too. So how is this happening?

"Anytime that you leave your credit card out of your sight," Spangler said. "Say you're at a restaurant and the cashier swipes the credit card or whomever is swiping the credit card, they're retaining that data."

Police say the incident happened just one day after Christmas, the prime time for thieves to commit this type of crime.

"The frequency of you utilizing your credit card or debit card occurs much higher during the holiday season, and according to my victim, this card was for Christmas gift purchases," Spangler said.

What can you do to protect yourself from credit card theft? Police have a few suggestions:

-       Don't let your card out of your sight

-       Make sure you're the one that swipes it (if possible)

-       When in doubt, use cash

-       Check your bank account activity at least once a week

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