Local News

'Skimmers' Hitting Gas Pumps

Jeff Hess

@ February 5, 2010 6:53 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

Running your credit card at the gas station could wind up costing you more than expected.

The scam moving up from South Florida is a new take on skimming, or stealing credit card numbers. Thieves put a small device on the credit slot, so that when you run your card it takes the number.
Flagler County Chief deputy Rick Look said they have had a recent rash of these crimes.
"Take a look at the gas pump that they are at. See if there appears to be a device placed over it or if it looks different from the pump next door to you," Look said.
The modified pumps are often in the dark or in places where the attendant cannot see the pump. He said sometimes you can fiddle with the reader to see if it has been modified or knock off the skimmer. However, that does not always work.
Terrence McElroy with the Department of Agriculture, the department responsible for making sure pumps measure accurately, has been involved in investigating some of these crimes. He said this has been in the state for some time.
"We have worked with some law enforcement agencies in South Florida and Southwest Florida where skimming at gas pumps was going on," McElroy said.
He said the problem is not extremely wide spread. Law enforcement agencies around Northeast Florida said they are aware of the problem but did not know of any incidents in our area.
That is part of what makes it hard to track. People will report the problem to their credit card company but not to police.
Still both men caution that you should be aware and watching your credit statements closely in case you have been victimized.

Tags:

Main Index | Archives | RSS feed

Avg. rating: N/A

What others are saying

Skimmers?
How about the "skimmers" that have the pumps set so that instead of the display showing "00.0" when you start them with your debit or credit card, the pumps will start up with anywhere from .25 to 3.55, and you do not notice because you have to choose your grade and grab the nozzle to insert it into your hungry gas tank, and perhaps you are in a bit of a hurry!!! I personally have lately had to go into the store on MANY occasions at SEVERAL locations in this entire town to ask for the money back before I pump a single ounce! The poor attendant has nothing to do with the pump settings, and will usually give me the money back from his/her register to compensate me for the loss, but I have seen many people blindly giving the pump owner EXTRA money per gallon because they are not paying attention! When I bring it to them before they start pumping, they get as mad as I do about it! When I call the State and local offices charged with the responsibility to make sure the pumps operate properly, I have repeatedly gotten the brush off with statements like "Well, if the consumer is not paying attention, the loss is their own fault." This is another issue that the government allows to happen under their watch! It is ILLEGAL to do such a thing, and immoral to subject the citizens to such treatment when the officials should do more with the inspection process instead of just blindly putting a new sticker on the pump WITHOUT CHECKING IT FIRST! When was the last time anyone who reads this post, saw a GOVERNMENT TECHNICIAN with his 2 gallon, graduated, red bucket with the long tapered neck at your local gas station methodically checking each pump on the premisis, when we used to see them all the time?
By Jim K @ 02/08/10 07:10:20 PMreport abuse

send to a friend view as printer-friendly RSS feeds