Watch Out At the Gas Pump

According to an article on MSNBC, you should not use your debit card at the pump.  Why?  Because a thief could steal all your money out of your account before you even know it.  :

“They did it by installing their own hard-to-spot card reader, called a skimmer, on top of the card reader built into the pump. The skimmer is able to grab the account information from the card without interfering with the legitimate payment transaction.

The crooks used the stolen data to create (or clone) fake debit cards that were used at ATMs in Washington State over the Fourth of July weekend and in Northern California on Labor Day weekend. The bad guys like three-day holidays because it gives them more time to use the cards before the unauthorized withdrawals are spotted.

“We are looking at a sophisticated, very well-organized group of individuals,” says Detective Jason Visnaw with the Puyallup Police Department. When all the victims from these two incidents are identified, the total loss could reach half a million dollars.”"

These types of thefts are becoming even more common every day.  The new wrinkle is that there are even skimmers being found inside the pump, with a wireless connection to a laptop in the parking lot.  Scary, huh?  The article says that it is best to pay inside for your gas.  I know I will from now on.

Source

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