These days, my basic feeling is to use plain old cash as much as possible. I agree --avoid any card entry that is not done in immediate presence.
I did have to do that recently since I treated a group of people at a restaurant and I didn't have with me the cash necessary to cover the full dinner. But that was an unusual occurence. Normally I try to have a reasonable amount of cash on hand.
I notice a lot of people using credit cards to pay for rather modest purchases, such as a pizza dinner or convenience store purchase. I think this is foolish since every transaction increases one's exposure to loss. If I have no transactions at all during the month, then there's no statement mailed out and altogether less chance for a theft.
I remain angry at the government for their slow reaction to all of this. It isn't anything new, and much of existing law already covers such thefts. The newspapers reported that police wouldn't bother going after crooks unless the theft amount is over a rather high limit which effectively gives crooks a green light.
The bad part about this theft is that the actual theft loss may be minor but the damage is great. It's like someone smashing your car windshield (very expensive to fix) to steal a box of cookies from the front seat.
It used to be when one worked at a bank they had a background check and were fingerprinted. I wonder if that's still done, especially for the 'back office boiler room' people who handle all the phone calls for credit card issuers and credit data banks.