Sorry guys, but there is a trend here.
I thought my case was a one off issue when I used my Credit Card at National's FLL location and got compromised (the credit card swiped was only swiped at National and nowhere else) so process of elimination points back to National.
Of course they (National) rebuffed this, but I think they should be paying a lot more attention to this given this can affect their brand as a whole quite quickly.
Speaking with their fraud department (my bank) credit card skimming tends to happen:
1. When your credit card is swiped outside your line of sight (Rental car booths)
2. During off peak business hours (both which happened to the OP and myself). Psychologically the scammer feels more secure since less people watching/around.
3. The new cloned card is used at a store that the original user has either been to or is very commonplace (Walmart). Often times they will try it on a small purchase (like a chocolate bar) if that goes through. They will try again, very soon afterwards for a large purchase, and is usually what triggers the fraud alert. The scammers know this hence why they try to use it for big purchases quite quickly (and not small ones over a period of time) as the card number is soon cancelled.
It is still a pain in the a** for the customer to have to switch everything over to a new card, freeze your credit history and be vigilante for the next 6 months of any credit reporting issues (I ended up having to pay for a credit monitioring service)
4. Cloned card is used a large distance away from where it was skimmed. To make investigation that much more difficult. In our cases, West Virgina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
5. The person swiping your card doesn't even have to be be in on it to happen. It is very easy to attach skimmers to the reader and they can read it via bluetooth. All the more reasons that manager needs to be checking daily for skimmers or unauthorized attachments to their credit card readers on a DAILY basis.
This is also a big problem at gas stations. If you ever swipe your card at the pump, there very well could be a skimmer inside the pump transmitting your info via bluetooth (yes it's going that sophisticated) up to half a km (500 metres away). All one needs is a pump key (which can be bought through the black market, or by bribing someone who works at a gas station, or ) as any pump key will pretty much open ANY pump machine in North America (unless the owner decides to cough up the expense and get their own).
That's right one pump key can open the vast majority of gas pumps (where a skimmer can be placed) and no one would know until X amount of complaints of credit fraud (which is hard to trace back so the benefit of the doubt allows it to continue) or the pump is opened for maintenance. The reason the key was made universal for all gas pumps was for ease of maintenance across different brands but no one ever thought someone would try to install skimmers in there.
This is a big issue that most gas companies don't want to talk about (again the Ostrich defence). When it happened to my friend, I immediately stopped paying at the pump and now just walk inside.
6. I know of this happening to another National Renter (Exec Elite) who has had their credit card compromised at National and was also rebuffed by the company, but is not on FT.
One incident is an isolated issue, two is a line, and (three or more) is a trend.