Alert: Pay-at-Pump Skimming Attacks

National experts are warning that pay at the pump skimming devices are on the rise and will continue to be so until the end of 2016 when upgrades to the chip payment processing systems are completed. These systems can be easily accessed by criminals and the older the pump and reader, the higher the rate of caution you should be apply.

"Unattended, and especially older, self-service gas pumps are, and have always been, a very attractive target for criminals," says financial fraud expert Avivah Litan, an analyst at Consultancy Gartner. "And they will become increasingly attractive, as these will be some of the last payment acceptance devices to be upgraded to EMV in the U.S."

What can you do to protect yourself? If you must pay at the pump, check the machines, look for abnormalities and shake the reader. If anything looks off, DO NOT USE it! Immediately report it to the attendant on duty.

"According to many large gas pump operators, the addition of a ZIP code dramatically reduces fraud," Litan says. "Otherwise, if they are subject to skimming attacks, they may have to take drastic steps, such as requiring consumers to present their cards physically to personnel inside a protected cage where skimmers can't penetrate."

If you feel you may have used a device that may have been altered, please check your accounts and monitor them regularly, speak with a representative at the location of possible fraud and report it to the police.  It is also important to monitor your credit report, at S2S we can also help in getting you in contact with the credit bureaus to help mitigate any damages to your credit.

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