great to have you here on the Clark Howard show you know our mission is to serve you with advice

and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life in this

episode i'm going to talk about one of the easiest ways that your credit, but most

often debit card information, is stolen. And also, something that I talked about the first time,

gosh, probably seven years ago, is now going from being the rarest of rare things to more and more a mainstream thing.

It's solar to reduce your power bills that self-install in minutes.

Yeah.

Sounds too good to be true.

It actually is working, and I'll tell you what is involved, what the details are.

So people are having a big problem with using their debit card, and suddenly the money vanishes from their checking account for things you didn't buy,

things you didn't get.

And there was just a large-scale sweep by federal agents that found how common it was that first at gas stations more than anywhere else,

but even not at gas stations that skimmers,

little teeny, sophisticated devices that criminals put on pay at the pump at a gas station

or put at various places where your card is

swiped instead of tap to pay or a chip being used and criminals are able instantly now to over

wireless connections to duplicate your card, and you have not even driven

a mile from where you used your card at a device that had a skimmer to it, and they are already

emptying your checking account with a dupe card they've made. And so the Secret

Service put out a special warning for you to know how dangerous and common these skimmers are.

And if you use a debit card where you just swipe it down, that's when you're vulnerable. But today, debit cards routinely

are available from your bank or credit union that have tap to pay or have a chip in them.

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