This Thief Stole 1,300 Customers’ Credit Card Info Using His Memory

When you use your credit card to pay for your bills at a restaurant, a retail store or a grocery shop, it has problem crossed your mind whether your card number might be stolen. Of course, many methods have been applied to protect your card information, but nothing is 100 percent safe, right?

A recent story from the Land of the Rising Sun might make you want to protect your card information even more careful from now on.

The police have recently arrested a cashier from Tokyo for stealing more than 1,300 customers’ credit card information. Now, of course, you have read about this type of theft before. But what comes as a surprise is the method that the thief used to steal the information.

No advanced technology was needed as the thief used his mind instead. He was caught on September 13 after making an attempt to buy bags which were worth 270,000 Japanese yen from shopping sites in March.

Now, you may still wonder how the thief stole the money. Apparently, he has what is called a “photographic memory”. This makes him capable of memorizing customers’ card numbers once seeing them.

When investigators searched the thief’s home, they discovered a notebook filled with all the card numbers. It is believed that the thief stole the info at the Koto Mall where he worked. While the customers were buying things, the thief would look at their cards, memorize the numbers. He then went home and wrote down the numbers in his notebook.

Now, you may have watched some films with people having a “photographic memory,” who can remember everything. “Photographic memory” isn’t really a thing. Evidence has pointed out that it isn’t possible to recall images with perfect accuracy.

The more appropriate phrase would be “eidetic imagery.” But even people with great memories still remember things with inaccuracies. Some people are born with the gift to have a better memory and it seems like the thief in this story has this gift.