Card skimmers go undercover
 

Card skimmers go undercover

November 10, 2010

By Branson Hunter

The desperadoes are getting smarter. They want your money and they’re quite clever in fooling you to get it.

We’re all aware of external scamming hardware which fits over the card reader. Now the crooks have an INTERNAL scamming devices inside a gas pump hat pulls the information from your ATM or credit card. Now isn’t that special. . . The desperadoes have a little key which opens the device (Circle K and Valero stations have been targeted).

Protect your ATM and credit card at all times. Pay for your gas inside the station. Anyone who believes they may have been victims of this scam can call their local sheriff’s station or call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

V.V. Daily Press, Nov. 09, 2010, Mojave Desert - t’s a task many people perform every day, multiple times a day without thinking, and crooks are banking on that automatic response in order to scam victims out of their money.

“People use their ATM or credit cards every day and don’t think about it,” Trish Hill, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Apple Valley station, said.

Detective Bob Thacker has been working several cases involving card readers and in the beginning of October, he recovered a skimmer — a device the pulls the information from an ATM or credit card — from inside a gas pump at a Circle K gas station and convenience store. The store is located on Mondamon Road and Highway 18.

“I think people have known about the external skimmers that are placed on the outside of the pumps, but this one is inside the actual pump,” Thacker said.

He said thieves access the inside of the pump with a key, usually used to change paper for receipts.

Card skimmers have been around for some time, but they’re becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. Many are molded to fit over ATM machine and gas pump components making them almost undetectable, officials said, but Thacker said a quick pull usually reveals the criminal device.

People have been warned about not using a pump or cash machine if there were any loose parts on the card reader or number pad portion of the device, but now a seemingly safe machine can also take a victim’s information.

Thacker is also investigating a link between Valero gas stations in the Los Angeles area and local ATM and credit card victims. http://www.vote29.com/newmyblog/archives/11970

EXAMPLE OF AN OUTSIDE CARD SKIMMER http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections...pic=1&id=22898


For more information about card skimmers, read the full story in Wednesday’s Daily Press.http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/val...tm-victor.html

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/car...ndercover.html

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/che...nk-credit.html

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/bec...ntity-say.html