ORLANDO – Gas stations throughout Central Florida, with its high volume of tourists and resulting high volume of sales, have become frequent victims of credit card skimming. That's why it's important for gas-station owners and customers to take preventative steps against credit-card skimmers, Gray Taylor of Conexxus recently told the Orlando Sentinel.
"They should be doing it for the best American reason known to mankind: — self-interest," said Taylor. "To me you can walk down a dangerous street with cash in your hand or you can take reasonable efforts to protect your cash. Nobody is going to pat you on your back if you don't get skimmed, but you are going to get kicked in your shins if you do."
According to the Sentinel’s report, Osceola County, Florida, deputies are trying to track down the suspects responsible for inserting credit-card-skimming devices earlier this month at two gas stations in the county. Detectives say the suspects used a universal key to install the skimmers. Luckily, only one victim had her information stolen.
To prevent these cases from happening, Taylor says there are a number of methods gas stations have been employing during the past five years.
One is using security tape over the pump. If that tape is broken, it alerts attendants that the pumps have been tampered with. Another is training attendants in what to look for on video. If someone is purposely blocking the pump from the video camera, it's a pretty good indicator that something may be wrong. Taylor also encourages stations to change the lock on gas pumps.
Industry leaders are also working on a more technologically advanced way to combat skimming. Taylor said Conexxus is working on credit-card readers that encrypt data. So when someone installs a skimmer device, the information comes back as scrambled numbers. Taylor said that is a few years away from implementation at gas stations.
Gas stations are not the only Central Florida businesses susceptible to credit-card skimming. In April, Orlando police arrested an employee at the Orlando International Airport after she installed a device to take the information of people leaving the parking garage. And in May, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office released photos of two men inserting a skimmer device at a bank.
According to the Sentinel, FICO, a California-based financial-services company, released data that named Florida a "hot spot" for skimming at ATMs in 2012. According to FICO, 41% of fraud cases in the state happened at retail stores; 48% occurred at ATMs that were not at banks; and 11% happened at bank ATMs. Nationwide, 36% of cases occurred at retail stores; 46% at bank ATMs; and 18% at non-bank ATMs.
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