Also, if the card was one of the Visa Debit cards (or even a real visa card for that matter) there are tons of places that it can be used without entering a PIN number or submitting to an ID check. Grocery stores and gas stations are two examples, although you cannot get cash from anywhere without using the PIN number (that I know of).
I don`t know about the USA but in the UK many large stores now have a system where when you make a transaction for shopping, you can ask for "cashback", so all you need is a signature to get cash from the card, however, I think the maximum amount per transaction is fairly low (something like $150) but there is nothing to stop someone going to a lot of different stores and repeating the process. Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"