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More Gas Station Credit-Card Skimmers
coondoggie notes a Network World piece on credit-card skimmers found installed in gas pumps, this time in Florida. Like the similar wave of attacks in Utah earlier this year, the latest crop uses Bluetooth to transmit the illicitly collected data. Does this mean an accomplice has to hang around within 3m of the pump? "The Secret Service has indicated there's a crime wave throughout the Southeast involving the gas-station pump card skimmers, and it may be traced back to a single gang that may be working out of Miami... St. Johns County in Florida has also been hit by the gas-pump card skimmers. [A local sheriff's department spokesman] says criminals wanting to hide the credit-card skimmers in gas pumps have to have a key to the pump, but in some cases a single key will serve to get into many gas pumps." Here's an insight from the banking industry on the skimming fraud.
Does this mean an accomplice has to hang around within 3m of the pump?
No, a Class 1 Bluetooth device has a range of up to 100m.
Or, in reality, every skimmer records numbers. The thief comes by with the "dumper", buys some gas while take a complete download of the current recorder memory. Its far less risky on the retrieval of the numbers, especially if the skimmers have already been identified and the cops are waiting around the corner for the guys to come back (unlikely, but you never know).
Bluetooth range can go up to 100 meters depending on the class of the transmitter. Class 1 ~100m, Class 2 ~10m, class 3 ~1m. A class 2 the recording device could be hidden in the trunk of the abandoned car at the place next door. Class 1 could be down the street.
Y'all got some religious prohibition about Reading The Fine Article?
The entirety of human knowledge at your fingertips, and you still insist on wearing your ignorance like a badge.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.