LOS ANGELES -- Even as the Wall Street Journal shined a spotlight on credit-card skimming in recent weeks, reports of card data being collected at gasoline pumps seemed to come from every corner of the United States.
In Richmond, Va., investigators reported a jump in skimming devices targeting credit cards at gas stations, according to a WWBT NBC12 report. And in Grand Rapids, Mich., five people were charged in connection with skimming incidents at West Michigan gas stations, according to FOX17.
These reports comer as the credit-card industry and gas-station owners are deploying everything from sophisticated software to heavy-duty padlocks to combat the epidemic of fuel-related theft and fraud, WSJ reported.
The crackdown is gaining additional momentum because many gas stations will be among the last merchants to install equipment accepting a new generation of fraud-resistant cards. While many big merchants will have equipment in place by Oct. 1 to accept the new chip-based cards, tougher guidelines set by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. don’t apply to gas stations until 2017.
That delay could exacerbate what analysts, card companies and law-enforcement officials say has been a recent surge in fraud at the pump.
“The concern is that this is still a gaping hole that has not been well addressed and now there are conditions that are going to make it worse,” Al Pascual, a director of fraud and security at Javelin Strategy & Research, a unit of Greenwich Associates LLC, told WSJ.
Gas stations make easy targets for those who want to make fraudulent purchases using stolen numbers, since pumps are usually unattended.
In addition, law-enforcement officials say it is increasingly common for crooks to rig pumps with “skimming” devices, which captures data from the magnetic strip on customers’ cards. Thieves can use that data to create counterfeit cards.
In May, Florida state officials conducted a series of sweeps that found more than 100 skimmers at gas stations.
In recent weeks, law-enforcement officials in California for the first time found devices that skim card data from unsuspecting gas-station customers and then relay the information to crooks via text message, Steven Scarince, a U.S. Secret Service agent in Los Angeles who runs a task force that specializes in gas-pump-skimming investigations, said in the newspaper report.
“Their technology keeps improving year after year,” he said. “Boy, are we busy.”
Credit and debit cards account for more than half of all U.S. gasoline purchases, according to Nilson Report, a Carpinteria, Calif.-based newsletter that tracks the payments industry.
Gas stations also are being hit by criminals who use counterfeit cards to fill up tanks hidden inside vehicles called “bladder trucks” that can hold hundreds of gallons of gas. The criminals then sell the stolen fuel to unscrupulous gas-station owners or construction sites.
“It’s frustrating how many times it’s happening. We spend a lot of time chasing it and trying to prevent it,” says Brian Decker, operations manager for SC Fuels, an Orange, Calif.-based distributor that also operates retail gas pumps.
Click here to read the complete Wall Street Journal report.
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