Credit card skimmer found on gas pump in Schwana
Spotting a credit card skimmer can be difficult. The skimmers are often designed to blend in with the fuel pump's payment hardware as shown in the photo above.
COURTESY IMAGE/GCSO
SCHWANA — A technician discovered a credit card skimmer attached to the card reader of one of the gas pumps at the Outpost Grocery in Schwana, south of Beverly on S.R. 243, Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.
According to GCSO spokesperson Kyle Foreman, the skimmer was designed to look like an ordinary part of the gas pump card reader and reads card information from the magnetic stripe. The skimmer was removed, but it is not known how much card information was obtained before the device was seen and removed, Foreman said.
Outpost Grocery did not return requests for comment prior to publication.
Foreman said skimmers have been attached in the past to both gas pump card readers and ATMs, and can either send information wirelessly to a thief’s cell phone or can be downloaded when the skimmer is later removed. There have not been any recent reports of similar skimmers found elsewhere in Grant County, Foreman added.
“These have been around since the mid-2000s,” he said.
Foreman said people filling their gas tanks or using ATM machines should pay special attention to pumps and ATMs and make sure nothing is obviously different, especially where they insert their cards. If people have had their card information skimmed, Foreman said they should contact local law enforcement and their financial institutions and get their cards deactivated.
“Tapping a card (wirelessly) is a safer method if it’s available,” Foreman said. “However, if we find a way to thwart a criminal effort, they find a way to thwart security.”
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.