Right now I'm not willing to buy with a CC again anymore. Won't be able to avoid it, but onlineCC shopping is going to be a rare event for me, hoping to minimize risk by that.

That still won't keep you from getting skimmed.  Remember those big skimming incidents, like the one at Target a couple years ago?  Organized crime members rigged the CC scanners to either store info or send it to some place, I can't remember which.  The culprits were employees working there with ties to a  crime ring.

People have also gotten their CCs skimmed at the DMV and at clinics, as mentioned in these threads.  Clinics and DMVs are also by far the most popular (successful) hits for identity thieves due to the amount of personal information processed there, including SS#.  The breaches are often on the inside, by an employee.