MIAMI -- From Miami to Michigan, a spike in credit-card skimming at retail gasoline pumps has raised awareness of the crime as national news outlets report on the findings.
CBS News reported Wednesday that two Miami residents are facing federal charges for allegedly installing credit-card skimmers at gas pumps in south Florida.
"In most cases, it is organized criminal groups, and they tend to work an area before they go to a different area," Jeff Lenard, vice president, strategic industry initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores, told CBS News. "Between pickpockets and skimming, people will want to be alert over the holidays."
Indicted Nov. 13, Floridians Anthony Nunovero and Edelso Sanchez are accused of stealing information from about 2,000 credit and debit cards to create counterfeit versions. The men allegedly attached modified scanners to gas pump readers, with the two even replacing tamper-proof seal stickers on the pumps with phony ones, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Meanwhile in Indiana, several skimmers were found planted in fuel pumps at gas stations in Johnson County, according to an RTV6 report.
And in Michigan, the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been on the hunt for the devices since August, after several skimmers were reported, including detected at one Birmingham, Mich., gas station this past week.
"It's crazy," Craig VanBuren, director of the Consumer Protection Section at Michigan's Department of Agriculture, told NBC Nightly News (See report below). "What we're finding since August has just really blown our mind."
"The trend is just a general straight line increase through 2015," Owen Wild, director of security marketing at NCR, a maker of ATMs and other payment systems, told CBS News. "It's dramatically up across all regions."
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