Remember when $4-a-gallon fuel was the biggest worry drivers had at the gas pump? State officials are tackling a new problem that might put a bigger dent in their wallets: Skimming.
Investigators have begun to find electronic machines inside gas pumps around Michigan that allow criminals to gather and store credit card information from unsuspecting drivers.
The skimming machine criminals typically use the credit card data to buy gift cards, which means their spending can’t be traced.
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development inspectors began searching in earnest for the electronic thieves in August and have found 15 skimming devices in 6,000 pumps they’ve looked at.
It works out to a rate of only 0.25 percent, or less than a percentage point of the state’s filling machines. But when projected to the more than 100,000 gas pumps across the state, it means there could be as many as 250 machines out there surreptitiously collecting credit card information.
“Our main focus in performing inspections has always been to make sure people are getting the right quantity of gasoline …,” said Craig VanBuren, director of the Agriculture Department’s Motor Fuels Quality and Weights and Measure programs. “But (skimmers) have become a part of our everyday inspections.
“We’ve already found skimmers on pumps we’d previously checked two weeks earlier.”
Even credit card holders with the new chip-security technology remain vulnerable to skimming devices because gas stations aren’t required to replace their credit card readers to accommodate the chip-enabled cards until 2017.
“People still need to be cautious for a couple more years,” said Jennifer Holton, spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department.
The use of electronic thievery happens right out in the open. An August arrest in Grand Ledge, west of Lansing, illustrated how two suspects operated before their arrest, police said.
“Bottom line, this is fraud,” said Jamie Clover Adams, director of the state Agriculture Department. “This is stealing someone’s personal information for criminal use. These inspections are just another way MDARD is protecting Michigan consumers at the pump.”
It’s a new problem for the Agriculture Department’s 14 inspectors who cover the state.
Read more of the original article at The Detroit News.
