I've been rather amazed at where DCC has been popping up in the US -- it's showing up even at places where encountering a Canadian or Mexican bank card is very rare. It seems like the level of business ethics -- even when dealing with major brands, brands with their own reputational concerns -- keeps slipping closer and closer to the level of ethics of legendary snake-oil salesmen. And foreign bank card-using visitors are prime marks for this kind of sleazy stuff since their proximity to the snake oil-sellers is more fleeting on average than it is with regard to local bank card users.

The US Treasury, the US Federal Reserve Bank and even some other parts of the US Government could put a stop to this kind of fleecing activity in the US, but the financial services industry lobby is strong and has allies in other sectors of the economy that are more than capable of frustrating any efforts to try to regulate away this sleazy DCC stuff across the country.