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Criminals Hide Payment-Card Skimmers In Gas Pumps
tugfoigel writes "A wave of recent bank-card skimming incidents demonstrate how sophisticated the scam has become. Criminals hid bank card-skimming devices inside gas pumps — in at least one case, even completely replacing the front panel of a pump — in a recent wave of attacks that demonstrate a more sophisticated, insidious method of stealing money from unsuspecting victims filling up their gas tanks. Some 180 gas stations in Utah, from Salt Lake City to Provo, were reportedly found with these skimming devices sitting inside the gas pumps. The scam was first discovered when a California bank's fraud department discovered that multiple bank card victims reporting problems had all used the same gas pump at a 7-Eleven store in Utah."
This got my credit card over a year ago in Saskatchewan, Canada. However, my card was skimmed at a do-it-yourself ticket-terminal at the local movie theatre.
It turned out it was a very large network of people who came together and organized the attack and paid people all over the country to do this and sent the info back to 'headquarters' in Ontario Canada.
They racked up over $600 in charges and it all appeared to have been used at Gas stations in Toronto / Missisaga in Ontario.
They put these things on any 'do-it-yourself' terminal they could find. This included pay-at-the-pump gas stations, ATM's, and any kiosk that could read a debit/credit card.
Luckily Mastercard covers things like this so it was much easier to report and reverse than a few friends of mine who had their debit cards skimmed. They had a much harder process to deal with.
The move to "Chip" cards ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_card[/url]) are rapidly increasing these days. I know my local credit union is fully switched over, although maybe half of the retailers in town actually support them.
Actually, my wife was a victim of this type of scam recently. They systematically cleaned our entire checking account out.
I, like you, felt that the bank's money was stolen, not ours. I put my money in the bank, and had not withdrawn it, so this was essentially a remote bank robbery in my opinion.
Where it gets interesting is this is EXACTLY how the bank treated it. They immediately refunded all money to the account, and then went after the fraud on the other end of the transaction.
Not sure if all banks treat you this way, but B of A did us right. (And they are usually listed as the most evil of providers, so I tend to think they are not unique).
I think identity theft was a real problem 10 years ago before it was understood, but now the banks realize it is not fraud by the victim in most cases and deal with it fairly.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you are shorter of breath and one day closer to death
That's a good point, and obviously the answer is 'no'. I recently had my CC # stolen by a pizza guy. I had just finished something like a 15-hour shift at work, I was tired, and I fell for a scam that, in retrospect, I should have caught on to immediately. Despite the fact that I ordered and paid for the pizza ahead of time, on the web, he told me that he "needed an imprint" of the card. Then he starts making the imprint with... his key? And then (and this is really where I kick myself), I take the original receipt and he goes, "Oh, nope, I need that one" and swaps with me. Of course, the carbon copy (which I am supposed to take but which he took) has the nicest key-imprint on it.
About 45 minutes after this happened, my CC company calls me to check on purchases that were made not five minutes ago at a "discount clothing store in the Bronx" (I live in Boston). Now, I am certain that this is the source of the theft, because prior to that, I had not used the card in several months.
My understanding is that the banks themselves don't absorb this loss because they pass it on to the merchant-- the merchant absorbs the loss. But I have to wonder whether banks (and credit card users) would be better (and cheaper) served by simply fixing these security problems now. Those fancy fraud-detection units can't be cheap. Our existing CC/ATM system is woefully anachronistic.
I briefly asked myself, if this guy, who was Hispanic, and given his choice of profession, probably poor, deserved some sympathy when it came to CC theft, and I quickly decided: no. There are many, many other people who are in exactly the same position, or worse, and they choose to do the right thing regardless. CC thieves are thieves. They don't point a gun at you, but the end result is the same thing.
I've been the victim of skimming twice. I love paying at the pump but it's getting out of hand. Even with a credit card it's the inconvenience of filing a dispute, canceling the card, etc. This time they laundered the money by buying five $200 wal mart gift cards with a cloned card.
Here locally they say it's been the Fast Trip and AM PM stations that have been hit. The two with the lowest prices of course.