A sudden spike in the discovery of credit card “skimmers” hidden in gas pumps has state officials warning Arizona consumers how to avoid becoming victims.
Department of Agriculture inspectors found 11 of the hidden devices all of last year. Last month alone they detected 31, department director Mark Killian said Thursday.
Part of the increase may be due to more investigations of gas pumps, said Killian, whose agency absorbed the old Department of Weights and Measures.
But he said thieves are becoming more creative in ways to quietly part customers from their money.
And his department has just 12 inspectors to check about 12,000 gas pumps statewide — meaning consumers cannot rely solely on the state to find and remove the devices, Killian said, but actively need to protect themselves.
The problem is not isolated. Inspectors have found scanners on 59 pumps this year in places ranging from the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas to rural Kingman, Yuma and Eloy.
Some places have more problems than others: A gas station at West Ina Road and Interstate 10 on Tucson’s northwest side turned up eight of the devices this year. State officials did not provide the name or brand of the station.
To the naked eye, the skimmers are undetectable.
Killian said those who know what they’re doing can open a gas pump in seven seconds. Then it takes just a few more to piggy-back the scanner onto the pump’s regular card reader and close all the access doors.
He said some devices can store up to 5,000 card numbers and PINs while waiting for the thieves to return. Others are more high tech, using Bluetooth wireless technology that instantly transmits the stolen information to someone parked nearby.
Given the invisibility of the devices to consumers, Ephram Cordova, an inspector in the Division of Weights and Measures, said there’s no sure-fire way for consumers to protect themselves, which is why state inspections are crucial.
But there are things customers can do.
The first line of defense is security tape over keyholes and other places where the machine can be opened up, Cordova said. A torn tape or a tape that shows signs of tampering — often with the word “void” popping up — is a sure sign to go elsewhere or pay cash.
Delia Garcia, spokeswoman for Walmart and Sam’s Club, where a state demonstration occurred Thursday in Glendale, said that’s why all of her company’s pumps have such protection.
But Arizona law does not require the use of such tape by retailers.
“The public is unsuspecting and really doesn’t have any good way to know whether the machine has been tampered with,” Cordova said.
Cordova said given staffing constraints, he and his colleagues concentrate their efforts on older-style gas pumps that are less tamper-resistant.
“When I’m driving, I look at suspect pumps, ones that are easily opened, ones that are easy to put a skimmer in,” he said.
Killian said customers who come across gas pumps without security protections can ask an attendant when the last time someone opened them up to check for skimmers.
“And if they say, ‘Well, we haven’t checked in awhile,’ then I wouldn’t get my gas there,” he said.
Killian acknowledged that customers may be in a hurry and distracted, especially this Labor Day weekend. “The last thing you think about is somebody could be putting a device inside (a gas pump) to steal your credit card information,” he said.
But he said, if nothing else, customers unsure of whether a pump has been tampered with should never use a debit card, which takes the money directly out of a checking or savings account. Killian said it’s best to use cash “or a credit card with a very low limit.”
Then, on the tail end: Check credit card statements and inform the issuer if there are unauthorized charges, said Michelle Wilson, an assistant director of the Department of Agriculture. Aside from getting fraudulent charges removed, she said the credit card companies work closely with her agency to look for patterns and backtrack to the gas stations where the information was skimmed in the first place.
“Sometimes the criminals will hold these numbers for a couple of months,” she warned.
