“Russia and the former USSR”. Alert Rocky and the wolverines. What year is it??
So… the article doesn’t say anything about what we can do to protect ourselves from skimming devices like this. Though it may be true, what does the article accomplish besides FUD?
Use cash? Understand the odds, keep calm, and carry on?
Use a credit-card; that way you’re protected from false charges (unlike skimmed debit cards)
As you mention Cory, the problem with this type of situation is that it’s up to the station owners to fix the problem. Filling stations make very little profit on the gas they sell. The vast majority of their income comes from the convenience items in their stores (alcohol, sodas, snacks). I wonder how much incentive exists for them to temporarily crook-proof their pumps when most of their finances come from elsewhere.
ALWAYS grab the card reader firmly and give it a firm tug (i.e. attempt to rip it off the machine). If anything even remotely wiggles or appears to be made of dissimilar materials, fuhgeddaboutit.
I’m guessing that helps find the lame ones, but its hardly foolproof: something tells me the skimmers are well aware of the miracle of epoxy putty and the way it easily creates a wiggle free bond.
That won’t help as in this case the perps actually installed additional hardware inside the gas pumps.
Those aren’t “whisper-thin” credit card skimmers, they’re actually a lot bigger than normal skimmers. The difference is the perps actually opened the gas pumps up and installed all that extra hardware inside the pump!
Obviously the solution is to not purchase gas. I’ve started to build my own oil refinery in the backyard. Problem solved.
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