Check your account, protect your credit cards

Dear Heloise: I gave my credit card to the girl at the fast food window, and then she got her phone out and was texting, or she could have been taking a picture of the back of my card, which has all the pertinent info on it: the 16 digit account number, the expiration date, my name and that three digit security code.

This made me nervous, so I called the card company. They said I am not responsible for any unauthorized charges, I can freeze my card on their website, and the phone representatives can always help.

— Robin T. in Tennessee Robin, the vast majority of service workers are honest and would not take a picture of your credit card, but if you got an uneasy feeling, it’s a good idea to check the account and make sure everything is OK.

Credit card companies are getting away from raised numbers on the cards.

Those were needed when cards were run through an old-fashioned card reader that left three carbonless copies in the wake of its swipe.

Readers, what was the last transaction you remember being run through the manual “cha-chunk” card reader? Let’s go down memory lane. — Heloise

Tech talk Tuesday

Dear Readers: If you watch a lot of videos online, you may already know what a screen grab is. It’s one frame of video used to illustrate the content of the video.

Many times, the host or producer of the video may use a picture that is contrary to the tone of the content of the video just to “grab” your attention. — Heloise

Mail fail

Dear Heloise: I was wanting to lessen the amount of email I get. My email provider on my desktop application will allow me to right-click and block all future emails from the unwanted sender, and also delete all current emails that maybe I haven’t read yet.

This has lowered the volume of email

I get considerably. — Mel R. in New York