JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Scammers are getting smarter when it comes to getting their hands on your money.
Card skimming has evolved. You’re not only at risk at the gas station anymore. Card skimmers were found locally at grocery stores, ATMS, marinas, and convenience stores.
The News4JAX I-TEAM has warned you before to watch out for skimmers. Just this past March, five people in Jacksonville were charged in connection with a suspected card skimmer ring.
Video provided to News4JAX by the U.S. Secret Service that was taken off the dark web shows just how easy it is for a skimmer to be in business.
Joe Scargill, the U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Jacksonville Field Office, provided the I-TEAM with access to multiple skimmers seized from real businesses in Jacksonville.
“You can see in real-time, it’s not super complicated,” Scargill said, while showing us a tutorial of a scammer installing a card skimming device. “You stick your card in. It steals the data off your card. You pull your card out. You’ve got no idea that thing’s in there.”
The video features some of the latest and more expensive skimming technology that’s really making things easier for scammers. There’s no security tape or locks involved.
“You can jiggle the front all you want,” Scargill said. “They haven’t tampered with the front of the device. So, it’s not going to move, or it shouldn’t move if it’s legitimate.”
Scargill said it’s no longer enough to check for tampered-with security tape. You need to go a step further if you’re worried about skimmers.
The red or black security tape you’d see at a gas pump is easy to duplicate and widely available online, and skimmer technology is becoming smaller and more efficient.
“It would be very difficult for a consumer to detect that, and there’s counterfeit, foil seals all over the internet. So, even though the little seal on the gas pump is broken, that can easily be replaced,” Scargill said. “Anything where you’re physically putting your card in, you’re going to be at a risk for this to happen.”
The idea is to steal your data from the magnetic stripe on your card, bypassing a chip reader’s security. The card skimming device is small enough to sit undetected where you would insert your credit card to pay.
In the past, scammers would typically use a key to open a gas pump or place a façade over a legitimate card reader. That’s where the advice to check for tampered security tape and to jiggle the card reader comes from.
Scargill said it’s important consumers understand that scammers are constantly evolving with the times.
“It’s like playing chess, right? You move your piece, I move mine, you move your piece, I move mine, you come up with a new technology, we come up with a way to defeat it,” he said.
The FBI estimates that skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion each year.
It’s not hard to see why. The technology is advanced and disposable. Even when a skimmer is confiscated by law enforcement, a criminal still has your data.
So, what can you do to protect yourself? The best advice, Scargill said, is to use tap to pay or pay with your phone wherever you can.
“No. 1, you’ve got to keep track of your bank statements. No. 2 is I would use my tap, my near field communication as much as I could,” Scargill said. “That information is very difficult to compromise. The magnetic stripe of your card is not passing anywhere through, you know, a physical skimming device so that is a very secure way to conduct a transaction.”
There might be another reliable way to detect a skimmer, using an app. It’s called “Card Skimmer Locator” and it’s simple to use. Just take it out at the gas pump and if the skimmer is using a Bluetooth device, it will alert you.
News4JAX tested the app at five different local gas stations. It was easy to use, but it’s not foolproof. It all depends on what kind of skimming device a criminal is using.
“That’s a fake overlay. There’s no Bluetooth in there,” Scargill said, showing News4JAX a card-skimming device. “So, the person physically installs this and lets transactions go for a week or so, comes back and takes it. And then they have the information. So, you know, your app that scans for Bluetooth signal isn’t going to detect this because there isn’t one.”
Using Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Tap to Pay, or even gas station rewards apps that allow you to pay from your phone is the safest option to avoid skimmers -- at least for now.
“I’m sure someone will figure out how to steal that right down the road. It’s a constantly evolving environment,” Scargill said.
Locally, Daily’s, Exxon and Circle K gas stations have rewards apps that allow you to save money and use your phone to pay at the pump.