I knew some people who dabbled in stolen cards who drove across country. They steal the cards from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey when they visited relatives or friends, and make their way back to California, Nevada, and Arizona. On the way home they start using the cards for food, cloths, and half way they would go big with items, and stop right before they hit their home state. The reason is back in those days, you had time as in a couple of days before they caught on about the stolen cards. It got tougher when it was only a few hours, so you could not stay over night in a town and use it. Fred who passed away years ago panicked one time, cause he stole a card and tried using it in Ohio, but it would not go through and thought the news traveled faster, turned out the card had been canceled before he had stolen it, they would steal 2 to 4 cards from wealthy businessmen or who they thought were rich. He paid cash cash for dinner and threw away the card and didn't use another card until Illinois. That was back in the day. Another guy who is still alive and did time, had an inside man who would duplicate a card of a wealthy client who was new. Give his information and would use it after pattern was made on purchases. He would get the recipes and copy the shopping later on with big purchases and sell most of the items, other times he would not use it a few times on whatever and through it away. It last for some years, but apparently his inside man was a druggie who eventually ODed on something, the never used his name on the paperwork he used a coworkers name. He never got caught on the cards only on stolen property. Card readers have been around for over two decades, the smart criminals and college students figured it how back then, now it is easy to where anyone can do it. They put the device at gas stations, convenient stores, ATM, even at bank ATM if they are ballsy enough.