Ever Heard of "Skimming"?

[Jim Wilson]

It's where somehow a crook gets your info off of the magnetic strip on either your credit or debit cards. In my case it happened at the same gas station where I have been buying my gas for years.

Basically the only thing I could tell was that the machine seemed a little longer outside of the pump - but it actually looked "normal". I fueled up, took my receipt, and thought nothing of it.

Until the next morning when my bank called and advised me that there were "multiple attempts coming in from Pakistan to take money from your account".

In the end I did not lose a dime. But there were some serious lessons learned here:


If something looks even a little odd don't use it.
Even at places you usually do business this sort of thing can obviously happen.
You need to make sure that your bank covers this sort of thing. My bank has an auto-alert that if certain countries are involved in transactions the account is frozen until they confirm the purchases with the customer.
Don't ever think that you can't have this happen to you....it can and will if you don't pay attention.
The number one place it happens is restaurants followed by ATMs and finally gas stations.


Forewarned is forearmed folks....

Jim Wilson

[Natalie Williams]

I've heard of restaurants and ATMs, but I never heard of that happening at a gas pump outside.
Did you go notify the gas station?
Was it an employee that did it?

[Jim Wilson]

I've heard of restaurants and ATMs, but I never heard of that happening at a gas pump outside.
Did you go notify the gas station?
Was it an employee that did it?

Hey Nat,

I have been getting gas there for 15 years or so and never had a problem. He denied any knowledge but there are some new guys working there who I don't recognize and it could have been any one of them.

Out of interest I looked at all of the pumps the day I was there and there was nothing unusual about any of them.

From what our local police said this could have easily been anyone who developed this little snap-on device, stopped by and put it in place, and then came back and picked it up once it had been there for a day or so. The station I get my gas from is on an extremely busy corner and it does a huge volume of business. The pump I used that day was #1 and it was the closest to the exit.

Jim

[pete]

I had my bank cancel a debit card and issue a new one because my card was in a batch that was gotten from a Sam's Club gas station. It was the second time in a year I had to notify about 40 auto-pay accounts of my new number - utilities, insurance, etc.

The other time was in one of those big batches you hear about in the paper and on TV. Again, had to notify a bundh of peple. But that did help me gat a list so when the Sam's deal hit I had them all in a list.

[Jim Wilson]

Hey Pete,

What amazed me was the fact that the machine that took my card looked completely innocent. Not really enough out of the ordinary for me to pick up on it and thus I used it.

I also recently received an email from my bank warning about the lack of security with regard to Paypal. Apparently a lot of people have had their card numbers lost in the mix that is Paypal. (scary considering how much I use Paypal)

I am just thankful that my bank picked up on the problem before I lost any money. This could have been a HUGE disaster!

Jim Wilson

[pete]

Heck, mine wan't anything different at all. Just used the swiper deal in the pump. It was a debit card, so I must assume they got the PIN, too.

It just had to be someone hacked the system.

The bank just said they knew I had bought gas at that particular Sam's Club gas station on whatever day, that the card had been comprimised, and here was a new number.

At least they were on top of it.

Of course, one of the benefits of a debit card is there is only so much in the account at any one time. On that account I certainly don't have to worry about any 5 figure transactions being charged to me. :)