This 'open letter' has a ring of dishonesty to it.

> Clearly, Square is a threat to VeriFone, so it’s intentions aren’t so pure when exposing this potential issue.

That much is obvious. The letter is geared towards 'protecting the consumer', but makes the skimming method extremely public (especially with sq-skim.com)

I'm sure this will result in an increase in credit card theft incidents.

I'm also curious as to whether or not the perceived security threat is a bit overblown—there are many opportunities for my credit card number to be stolen (either when I use it online, or for physical transactions.) There's always a risk, and as such, I generally don't go passing my credit card (or scanning my credit card) to vendors I don't trust. I assume that since you'd need to be physically present to give the card to be skimmed, you'd draw on other internal factors of trust (and not have much of a higher potential for card theft than at any other establishment.)