Call Christina tells you how to avoid gas pump skimmers

Use cash when possible

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Miami-Dade Police Department's economic crimes bureau offered Local 10 News investigative reporter Christina Vazquez a rare look into a sneaky new skimmer trend: gas pump skimmers.

Previous Local 10 News reports have warned you about checking for skimmers at ATMs.

"The majority of the time it is stuck over the machine," Detective Marcos Rodriguez said. "The best way to protect yourself from an ATM skimmer is to look at the face of the machine and shake the part where you would insert your credit card. If it pulls off and stays in your hand than you know they installed a skimmer."

Vazquez always thought it worked the same way at gas pumps. That was, until her ride along last week with an elite unit of Miami-Dade Police Fraud Detectives.

Previous Call Christina reports:

Marijuana grow house, cockfighting ring busted in Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade police seek victims in credit card fraud bust

Vazquez was the only reporter in South Florida with detectives as they took down members of a suspected organized crime ring. The group is accused of buying diesel fuel using stolen credit card numbers lifted from gas pump skimmers, growing marijuana and cockfighting.

GAS PUMP SKIMMERS: THE THREAT YOU CAN'T SEE

During "Operation Out of Gas," Vazquez learned that some individuals are placing modified skimmers, capable of recording up to 2,000 credit card numbers, inside the pumps.

This week, detectives showed the Call Christina team some of the modified skimmers they have been finding inside gas pumps. Screen shots from surveillance video show how fast it happens.

Once installed, not even the gas station attendant would know it is there, explained detectives, since it does not interrupt a transaction but rather records the credit card number after the card is swiped.

Rodriguez said many gas pumps are guarded by just two screws. Using a hand tool, he is able to demonstrate how quickly the fuel pump can be opened and a modified gas pump skimmer inserted.

Other pumps have a key lock but Rodriguez said, "The keys for the gasoline pumps are universal, reason being, there are different companies that come and work on the fuel pumps. You have the Department of Agriculture that has to do inspections, so they can't make one key for every single pump because there are thousands of gasoline stations. That would mean they would have thousands of different keys and they would not know which one it corresponds to."

That's different than an ATM where Rodriguez said each key corresponds to a specific ATM. The ATM also opens from the inside, not out. This is why skimmers tend to be placed on the front face of an ATM and not inside as they are seeing with gas pumps.

PROTECT YOURSELF:

Rodriguez said the best way to protect yourself from a threat you can't see is to pay the gas station attendant in cash, pay with your credit card in person, or use the machine connected to the gas station attendant's computer which Rodriguez said is "difficult to taper with."

SPOT SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR:

Detectives hope what you have learned will not just keep you safe from this economic crime, but keep you alert. 

"We investigate all these kinds of cases," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez urges you to contact the gas station attendant and call police if you spot any strange or suspicious behavior to include someone, "parking the vehicle catty-corner in an angle blocking the view to the cashier, opening the fuel pumps. Again, they are not in commercial vehicles they are in private vehicles."

You can call the MDPD Economic Crimes Bureau at:  305-994-1000 or email detectives at ecbinfo@mdpd.com.

You can also call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.  Calls remain anonymous and the caller is eligible for a monetary reward of up to $3,000 for information leading to an arrest and filing of criminal charges.

CALL TO ACTION: "BEST PRACTICES"

Gas station owners can also play a big role in stopping this crime and protecting a customer's information by checking their pumps for skimmers.

Police said the owner of the Exxon gas station at 7291 SW 8th St has his staff check the fuel pumps for skimmers every few hours.

"Since he's found out about everything that's going on with the gas skimming, what he does is that every time there is a shift change, or in between shifts, he sends out his cashiers, to come out, open the pumps, makes sure there is nothing installed on the fuel pumps. If they are, he contacts the police right away," Rodriguez said. "Other gasoline stations, what they do is they install safety labels on the fuel pumps. It is basically just a label that goes over the opening of the pump. If it's tampered with, if it is cut, if it's removed then they know that somebody was unauthorized inside the fuel pump."

If you are a gas station owner committed to helping police combat this problem and protect your customers, call the economic crimes bureau.

If you make any changes after viewing this Call Christina segment, email Vazquez at CallChristina@wplg.com. The team looks forward to sharing with the community what you are doing to protect your customers' personal information and combat this prolific economic crime.