Credit card 'skimmers'

[Mobuck]

Just a note of warning: This being the busy holiday/vacation travel period, check your CC bills carefully especially in the MidWest.
North Central MO has become an area of shysters using CC 'skimmers' in convenience store gas pumps to snag credit card info. I don't get out much anymore but my card info was stolen during a one time use in Mercer county MO. I disputed the 'test charge' of $1 and contacted the county Sheriff, Casey's store & corporate HQ, and my CC provider immediately after the incident. Got nothing more than a shrug from all. Yesterday, my detailed CC bill arrived and I found a $150 charge from another Casey's store 150 miles away. Contacted CC provider and contested the charge. Obviously nothing to gain by contacting LEO or corporate as they did nothing the first time.
Local news reported a 'skimmer' had been discovered in another Casey's store 100 miles east of where I was 'skimmed' (this is at least the third incident in this particular store on the same main highway)
Just fair warning: Use a secure card with a low credit limit if patronizing ANY Casey's convenience store. If I was making a SWAG, I'd say this may be an 'inside job' with store employees involved. If so and considering the small town politics, local authorities may not be helpful(might be their Cousin who's the culprit).

 

[contender]

Good info.

 

[Ethang]

set your credit card notifications to $1. I get a text and email for every single transaction in real time.

 

[Kevin]

This is a very good post. Everytime my wife's and my credit card has been hacked, we can trace it back to the physical card being used somewhere.

I would also like to point out. As much as some of you don't like to use your phone to pay using Apple Pay. It's safer. The card skimmers don't work if you use Apple Pay.

I'm not advocating Apple Pay. You can also use the tap to pay feature found in a lot of credit cards. Unfortunately places like Wal Mart or Home Depot won't use that technology.

Google has a similar system for non-Apple phones.

Just FYI

 

[Mobuck]

What I found 'unimpressive' was the reaction of the county LEO to what I considered a serious problem. Not my county so not my vote but certainly a black eye for the Sheriff's Dept. Three counties away, the Sheriff is chasing this issue and actually trying to find the culprit. PLUS, the store(the only convenience store/24 hour gas pump in town) is totally unconcerned even though I'd suspect their surveillance cameras might have captured video of someone spending an inordinate amount of time fiddling around the pump(s).

 

[somorris]

Interesting. Just last night I read about new "micro technology" ultra thin skimmers ( I think they were called shimmers) that thieves can just push in to ATM machines card slot and they read your data. Very difficult for banks to detect.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

This is VERY common and has been around for years. Always check for an overlay device when using a credit/debit card. Up until a few years back the bad guys had to sneak the overlay device on, and then retrieve it later to download the collected data......now, the devise look even more authentic and use Bluetooth.....typically there is a vehicle nearby collecting the data and using it immediately to make purchases online, or infiltrate accounts.

It takes the bad guys about 2 seconds to snap the device on....usually one distracts the employee, and one snaps it on. Gas stations they just walk up and snap it on.

I worked hundreds of these cases. Easy to determine when and how the overlay device was installed....but identification is 99% impossible. This type of ORC is very intricate and involves a ton of patterning.

......and there have been a few "Tap" readers compromised as well, mostly at gas stations.

Always give a tug to check for an overlay before swiping/inserting or tapping you cards.

 

[Kevin]

I'm actually in London right now on vacation. Many places won't accept cash anymore. Just credit cards and only tap to pay. Either with a phone or the tap to pay cards.

I used my phone this morning at a convenience store for a bottle of water. .89 pence.

 

[DGW1949]

Honestly, I don't understand why people keep using cards....In the beginning, we were told how safe, easy, and convenient they were compared to using cash. Purty-soon almost all of us were convinced that carrying round cash was not only too much trouble, but also downright dangerous. It became the chic thing to do.....Then, the idea got spread around that people whom didn't fall in line with the "new normal" were either trying to duck something, or possibly were outright criminals. In other words, using cash and/or writing a check to pay for goods and services has become stigmatized to a degree....But the truth is that having one's card info stolen is much more commonplace than getting robbed ever was. And besides that, almost all gas stations give a discount for cash. And, every time you use a credit or debit card anywhere, you are paying 3-4 % extra for whatever you are buying so the retailer can recover the fee that the banksters are charging him so's he can remain in the "system".....Yes, it's true, you want to see prices go down?..start using cash to buy stuff. In fact, there's places other than gas stations that are offering cash discounts. Who knows, maybe it could become a nation wide trend....Wouldn't it be something, seeing inflation drop some 4% ? ......Yeah, I know there'd be a couple of downsides. People would have to learn to add and subtract again, and they would have to put their phone down ever now and then so they could pay attention to what they are doing. Still though, seems like a reasonable trade off to me.

But hey, I'm just a dumb ole country boy, so what do I know.

DGW

 

[DeletedMember275]

Honestly, I don't understand why people keep using cards....In the beginning, we were told how safe, easy, and convenient they were compared to using cash. Purty-soon almost all of us were convinced that carrying round cash was not only too much trouble, but also downright dangerous. It became the chic thing to do.....Then, the idea got spread around that people whom didn't fall in line with the "new normal" were either trying to duck something, or possibly were outright criminals. In other words, using cash and/or writing a check to pay for goods and services has become stigmatized to a degree....But the truth is that having one's card info stolen is much more commonplace than getting robbed ever was. And besides that, almost all gas stations give a discount for cash. And, every time you use a credit or debit card anywhere, you are paying 3-4 % extra for whatever you are buying so the retailer can recover the fee that the banksters are charging him so's he can remain in the "system".....Yes, it's true, you want to see prices go down?..start using cash to buy stuff. In fact, there's places other than gas stations that are that are offering cash discounts. Who knows, maybe it could become a nation wide trend....Wouldn't it be something, seeing inflation drop some 4% ? ......Yeah, I know there'd be a couple of downsides. People would have to learn to add and subtract again, and they would have to put their phone down ever now and then so they could pay attention to what they are doing. Still though, seems like a reasonable trade off to me.

But hey, I'm just a dumb ole country boy, so what do I know.

DGW

I have been told that businesses like to accept cash, especially for contracting/construction work as a way to 'cheat' the system. Charge $X, report $Y.

 

[DGW1949]

I have been told that businesses like to accept cash, especially for contracting/construction work as a way to 'cheat' the system. Charge $X, report $Y.

Yeah, that is the rumor ain't it?....Hence my statement "Then, the idea got spread around that people whom didn't fall in line with the "new normal" were either trying to duck something, or possibly were outright criminals."....On the other hand, maybe it's that some business owners have grown tired of being robbed by the banksters, and have decided to pass the savings on to their customers, which when you think about it, is just good business.....Myself, I wouldn't assume that someone was up to no good simply because they don't follow the crowd. But that's just me.

DGW

 

[GasGuzzler]

True, the cops care not about such things. They know they have hardly a chance at solving the issue so they don't care.

Sad thing is if it's your DEBIT card and the bank is local like in my case, they require a police report to start the refund process (paid by their insurance). This requires you to have a conversation with the sarcastic meat head with a uniform shirt three sizes too small about it where he can accuse you of the fraud, then accuse your wife, then accuse your kids.

Happened to me just like above and I did some digging by calling the places where some of the purchases were made (east coast, go figure). ONE shop owner did in fact give me information on the buyer where all the others refused. I got an address where the online order was shipped. Turned that over to the detective on my case (a different guy than the meathead), and he never called back. Every time I tried to call him at the number (local, city) provided when I opened the case, I was put off by the receptionist or ignored.

Yes, it was only a thousand dollars of theft I got back within three days but still...

I try and use the tap function as much as possible. Not sure if that is safer. Also check the seams on the machine for inspection tags.

 

[Mobuck]

"Honestly, I don't understand why people keep using cards."
Prior to my second retirement, I did a LOT of driving for the job.
1: That would have required $50-100 PER DAY of pocket cash just for gas.
2: Keeping a pile of receipts to correlate business expenses is often a nightmare. Using a single CC for all business travel expense is more efficient.
3: Not every place that sells gas in rural areas has an attendant on duty 24/7.
4: Several times during the past few years, the CC 'rebate' on my gas purchases was paying better return than money in the bank.

 

[jyo]

OK, so my wife works in the live music industry and sometimes works in Las Vegas---EVERYTIME we go there, someone hacks our credit card! We only use one CC while in Vegas, so we only have that card to report the issue to---the CC company always cancels the card and removes the wrong charges from our bill---new card arrives three days later...
NEVER use a debit card to pay anything! When they hack a debit card, the $$$ comes right out of your bank account and then you have to fight the bank to get your money back---can be a difficult problem with some banks! With a CC, you're working with their money, not yours, and they want to solve the problem right away to stop further losses... In fact, the banks constantly send us debit cards by mail, and I have a shredder right by my front door---ALL debit cards go right into the shredder when they hit our front door---problem solved...

 

[DGW1949]

"Honestly, I don't understand why people keep using cards."
Prior to my second retirement, I did a LOT of driving for the job.
1: That would have required $50-100 PER DAY of pocket cash just for gas.
2: Keeping a pile of receipts to correlate business expenses is often a nightmare. Using a single CC for all business travel expense is more efficient.
3: Not every place that sells gas in rural areas has an attendant on duty 24/7.
4: Several times during the past few years, the CC 'rebate' on my gas purchases was paying better return than money in the bank.

RE:....
1: ....I was once an over the road trucker, so I'm quite familiar with carrying plenty of cash for buying fuel.
2: ....Keeping receipts ain't hard. It's simply a matter of developing a routine. Heck, society did it for years...You know, before we shuffled that responsibility off to someone whom we don't even know.
3: ....Yeah, I've seen a few places like that. f you want to start seeing even more, just start using them and purty-soon there will be. LOL.
4: ....I'd wager that whatever small "rebate" you are getting is much less than what the discount for cash is...just sayin'.

Not arguing your points here, just discussing them....We all have our reasons for doing things the way that we do them. That don't however, make the truth any less truer. And the truth is that we as a society have been conditioned to behave in certain ways by people whom only have their own interest in mind.

DGW

 

[XUSNORDIE]

True, the cops care not about such things. They know they have hardly a chance at solving the issue so they don't care.

Wrong they do care. They are overwhelmed with these cases and as I stated previously these cases are very intricate and have several levels. The crook that obtains your info doesn't use it. They sell typically sell it, and have buyers standing by, who move it along to another user. It happens very fast, and usually is buried deep by the time it's discovered. Retailers are not obligated to give any information to a card holder. In fact they can be held liable for impeding/interfering with an active investigation. You can get all the video evidence you want, and possibly even identify the user but peeling back the onion to the original crime is incredibly difficult. It isn't that they "don't care", they are back logged and overwhelmed with these cases....not to mention usually understaffed to all the ones retiring as fast as they can or getting into another line of work because people (most people/not all) think they don't care w/out walking a bit in their shoes.

People used to think fencing of stolen goods was hard to investigate....that became routine and mostly resolved in the ORC world.....electronic credit/identity fraud is a entirely different beast.

Even if unresolved cases are not forgotten, retained and often used to break other cases if certain criteria patterns.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Agree to disagree. If there is no effort no matter the reason, they don't care.

Under-staffed is not an excuse nor is it applicable. You don't know my local police has too many officers per capita.

And they don't care.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

Agree to disagree. If there is no effort no matter the reason, they don't care.

Under-staffed is not an excuse nor is it applicable. You don't know my local police has too many officers per capita.

And they don't care.

I should now better than to reply after a few bourbons......have you ever worked this job? worked one of these?

How do you know there was no effort? Do you know what it entails?

No matter the reason? This is why so many are quitting. Don't need to defund thm....forced woke bureaucracy/leadership and public perception will deplete law enforcement. God help us.

 

[GasGuzzler]

How do you know there was no effort? Do you know what it entails?

As stated, I worked my OWN case.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

As stated, I worked my OWN case.


Happened to me just like above and I did some digging by calling the places where some of the purchases were made (east coast, go figure). ONE shop owner did in fact give me information on the buyer where all the others refused. I got an address where the online order was shipped. Turned that over to the detective on my case (a different guy than the meathead), and he never called back. Every time I tried to call him at the number (local, city) provided when I opened the case, I was put off by the receptionist or ignored.

With all due respect, what you described as working your own case is just the tip of the iceberg, the easiest and most obvious part of the investigation. They go much deeper than that. You barely scratched the surface. More than likely LE had already done that much as it is one of the basic starting points. I wasn't there of course, and I don't want to assume anyone's demeanor but your "Meathead" wearing the shirt too small was also beginning the investigation by inquiring who may have had access to your card and collecting initial field notes for his report, which needs to cover certain things before assignment to a Detective. If that LEO was accusatory he did it wrong, or you possibly perceived it wrong as many folks do.

I'm sorry this happened to you. It sucks listening to folks who have had this happen to them. I understand the emotions and frustrations. I've been called every name in the book when I told them how difficult it will be to investigate. Also, the retailers/shop owners are not obligated to assist you, or to contact PD because they are not the victim and do not incur the loss/shrink. The retailer who provided you information opened themselves up possible legal trouble.