Posted
by Brad Johnson
on Mon Feb 8, 2010
Last updated
Feb 8, 2010
ABC 17 News uncovered how it's done. When you pay for gas there might be something watching you when you put your pin number in.
Consumer protection officials we talked with say there are two ways crooks can steal your information. One is by a camera....and the other is a skimmer that will copy the information off of your magnetic strip. Scammers can put them in pumps because one key can open pumps at hundreds of different gas stations.
"If they just get the skimmer then they have your card number and they can simply put it in a gas pump and pull it back out, they can do all the damage they want to do with your bank account," Boone County Sheriff's Detective Robert Brown tells us.
He also says this is a big problem right now and it will continue growing. The state attorney general's office told me you should pay attention to your surroundings.
"If they're engaged in a transaction that has good security such as hidden cameras, it would be very difficult for one of these organizations to place that skimming device on that A.T.M. or gas pump machine," Chief of Consumer Protection for the Attorney General's Office Doug Ommen says.
Ommen tells us one of the best things you can do is to use your debit card like a credit card. He says it will it allow you to get back charges that aren't yours and will limit liability.
We're told this exact scam hasn't hit Missouri yet, but it's only a matter of time. Consumer protection officials say if you use your debit card like a credit card then it can reduce your chance of getting scammed.
