Good to hear you’re getting your money back
its a not electronic manual thing, looking over your shoulder as you type your PIN. well thats what i’ve always thought of it/ been told it is as
Gas stations are very common points of compromise for counterfeit cards - as are restaurants. The server takes the card, walks away and you don’t see them swipe it - they can swipe once for the bill and a second through a sniffer for the counterfeit.
Counterfeit cards can be very hard to detect if the fraud people are skilled. It will look like a valid card - up to the hologram.
It amazes me daily how skilled some fraud people are - too bad they don’t use those skills for good.