After spike, just two card skimmers found at local gas pumps this year

Credit card skimmers at Arizona gas stations are nothing new.

For the last decade or so, state inspectors were finding a handful every year, 10 at most, according to a top state official at the Department of Agriculture’s Weights and Measures Services Division.

And then at the end of 2015, more were found in a single month than in any year that associate director Michelle Wilson could recall.

Her agency “rallied the troops,” partnering with law enforcement, banks and gas station operators to tackle the problem. In 2016, inspectors visited every Arizona gas station to look for skimmers, which capture credit or debit card information for use in fraudulent transactions, and teach gas station employees how to better protect their customers from the potentially costly crime.

“We’re there to make sure you’re getting a gallon of gas,” Wilson said of weights and measure’s traditional responsibilities. “We knew that this was a group effort.”

Those stepped-up inspections have so far found 140 skimmers at 97 locations across the state, according to state data available online. In the Tucson area, 27 skimmers were found at 15 locations. Prior to the surge in discoveries, another skimmer was found at a Circle K on 22nd Street.

While Wilson is cautious to read too much into the lull, more than 10 months have lapsed since the last skimmer was found in Pima County at the Circle K at 3712 W. Cortaro Farm Road in early February, according to nearly eight years of inspection data obtained and analyzed by the Road Runner. Another was found at a Shell on Grant Road the month before.

In contrast, almost 50 skimmers at nearly 40 locations have been found almost exclusively in the Phoenix metro area so far in 2017.

Sgt. Rick Radinsky, with the Tucson Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit, was also reluctant to declare any sort of victory, but did say “I think the numbers speak for themselves.”

To the degree that local efforts have been successful in dissuading would-be card skimmers from targeting Tucson, Radinsky said credit is due to many organizations. He said several area banks, including Vantage West Credit Union, used their data to help provide leads on potentially compromised gas pumps. TPD has also worked with the Secret Service, which Radinsky said is the lead investigator, and merchants, who have largely been proactive in taking additional security steps.

“Our endgame was to decrease the amount of skimmers that were found in the city, and protect the consumer,” he said.

Wilson and Radinsky said suspects are often travelling groups of criminals that move from community to community. The skimmers themselves can be quite sophisticated, with some capable of transmitting card data via Bluetooth or text.

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Of the 16 sites where skimmers have been found in Pima County, 10 have been Circle Ks. A Tucson Circle K on Ina had eight, the largest number of skimmers found at a single site in Arizona since 2016. The convenience store chain is the largest in Tucson, with roughly a quarter of stores included in the inspection data. The company did not respond to an interview request by deadline.

Inspectors also found skimmers at several Tucson Shell locations, at least one of them independently owned, a Hanson’s Good to Go and Arizona Best Gas. Skimmers were not found at other gas station chains with Tucson locations.

Arnaldo Mendez, whose father owns A & M Shell on Grant, said it was the work of a bank that first led state inspectors to his location in August 2016, and he applauded the collaboration between banks, law enforcement and weights and measures.

“It was a collective effort,” he said, adding that the credit union was the “most proactive.”

After a second skimmer was found several months later, Mendez said his family put more secure locks on all of the pumps, started regularly checking them to look for tampering and began leaving lights on overnight when no one was in the store.

“We are much more alert,” he said.

As to what consumers can do to protect themselves, the three people interviewed by the Road Runner were unanimous in saying that debit cards, because they connect directly to a bank account, present more of a risk. Among their other suggestions were paying for gas inside, running debit cards as credit to avoid entering PINs, and regularly checking accounts for fraudulent purchases.

However, Radinsky and Wilson said it could be challenging for the average consumer to detect if a gas pump has been compromised. Radinsky said some of the most effective measures can only be taken by the gas stations themselves, “and those safety measures cost money.”

He encouraged customers to check information on the pumps about what security features they have, or asking store managers. For more information on gas pump skimmers and how to protect yourself, go to tinyurl.com/y8weczl6.

DOWN THE ROAD

Starting Monday, the Pima County Department of Transportation will begin fogsealing South La Cañada Drive from Duval Mine Road to Esperanza Boulevard near Green Valley. Preparatory work will last through Wednesday with shifts from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. The treatment will be done during the same shifts Monday through Thursday the following week. During the work lane and speed restrictions will be in place, with sheriff’s deputies and flaggers on site to manage traffic.