It appears gas prices aren’t the only number rising at the pump.
Card skimming is more prevalent than ever, adding risk to a trip to the gas station.
A video recently posted to TikTok shows just how bad it’s getting – and what to watch out for.
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The clip was posted by Milan Dhanju and apparently, he captured the footage at a gas station in Oakland, California.
In the video, the TikToker can be seen using a screwdriver to prise off the keypad from the gas pump.
At first glance, it does make you question why he’s doing it.
But if you look ever so closely, the number ‘1’ button does look suspect.
And as soon as he removes the entire keypad, you can clearly see the ‘dummy’ keypad has been placed on top of the machine’s keypad.
Unfortunately, the TikToker doesn’t explain how the skimmer works.
But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that gas stations are becoming popular targets for card skimmers.
The reason; because there often aren’t nearby employees watching what someone does at the pump.
And since many gas station customer’s aren’t in the habit of checking for skimmers before inserting their card for payment, they may go undetected for days or weeks.
In addition to devices that steal information from the card’s magnetic stripe, the criminals may also install small cameras.
They may even use thin overlays on the keypad to capture what you type, which is what they’ve done in the TikTok video.
If the card skimmer is not found or disposed of, the criminals can return later to download all the stolen car indormation nabbed from scores of gas station customers.
They then create copies of cards and use them to make fraudulent purchases or withdrawals, or sell the stolen card details to other criminals.
Think we’ll stick to paying for our gas with cash…
