Buckeye resident Brian Bova says it’s no secret that people living in his community are having issues with credit card fraud.
“I never thought that I would have to change my gassing habits and I would have to go across town to do it,” said Bova. “People are popping up on Facebook writing my cards been used for this after pumping gas, my card just got hacked.”
Bova is a victim of credit card skimmers placed at local gas stations. Now he says he gets his gas from across the Valley.
“I work on the east side of town, so I’ve been gassing up over there because I haven’t had any problems,” said Bova.
According to the Department of Weights and Measure, however, the problem is there too.
“They really could be found anywhere, busy streets, not so busy streets, close to freeways,” said Michelle Wilson.
Wilson and her department track skimmers found throughout the state, and she says criminals are getting more advanced. She says while thieves used to have to retrieve the skimmers to download the card data, that’s not the case anymore.
“There are Bluetooth ones now where they just have to drive in close proximity, and they can just download all the credit card numbers,” said Wilson.
MAP: 64 credit card skimmers found around AZ
Some skimmers even allow the thief to receive the card numbers through text anywhere in the world. With 88 skimmers found across the valley last year; along with frequents checks of your bank account, Wilson says to ask questions next time you go to the pump.
“Ask the retailer where you get gas, what they do to protect you from skimming devices,” said Wilson. “Some stations have locks on their card readers, alarm systems, daily inspections so these are the types of things you should ask and want to know before you pump.”
She says gas stations are being expected to make some changes too. Particularly, converting all card readers to chip readers by the fall of 2020 or be held liable for fraudulent charges.
