TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Police said they’ve recovered four credit card skimmers, illegal devices used to steal data from credit cards, from local gas stations in the past week.
“A credit card skimmer is an illegal device that looks identical to a point-of-sale credit card terminal and fits over the top of the legitimate card reader,” Tulsa Police said in a Facebook post. “Credit card skimmers are often found on gas pumps and ATM machines. If a person swipes their credit card through a skimmer (thinking they are paying for gas or getting money out of the ATM) a suspect can collect and steal all the data on your credit card.”
The Financial Crimes Unit is working with a Federal Law Enforcement Agency during the active investigation.
“The easiest way to detect a credit card skimmer is to yank, pull, and tug,” Tulsa Police said.
Tulsa Police advise that you wiggle a few different parts of the machine to see if anything is loose before you put your card into a point-of-sale terminal.
FOX23 spoke with Tulsa Police Lt. Andrew Weeden about the skimmers.
“From the naked eye it looks like nothing’s out of place, but ultimately it’s just a plastic piece that looks like the original that’s placed over the credit card slot,” said Weeden. “It looks real, it looks just like the place that you would swipe your card for gas. The only things that’s going to be different about it is it might sit out just a little bit it might be a little more bulky than you’re used to.”
Weeden said the public needs to be vigilant about checking your credit card statements for any suspicious activity and checking credit card slots before inserting a card.
“You’re not necessarily going to know you’re a victim of this until you look at your credit card statement and you see an unauthorized transaction. You may get gas or if you swipe your card through the skimmer, it’s going to pay for the gas like normal, but ultimately your information is going to be stolen,” Weeden said.
Weeden also recommended people to utilize a ‘tap to pay’ option if available, which he said could help prevent your information getting compromised.
“If you use the tap to pay so if there’s a tap to pay option you can use that and your information will not be compromised with this specific type of skimmer. This specific type of skimmer we found recently here you’re only going to be a victim if you actually swipe your credit card through it,” Weeden said.
Weeden said they partner with federal agencies for bigger investigation such as this because of how widespread it is.
“Partner with United States Secret Service, a lot of times they help us out with larger scale investigations and they’re currently helping us with doing some of the forensics on the actual skimmers that we’ve taken off,” Weeden said.
TPD provided the following tips in their Facebook post on Monday:
- Credit card skimmers often stick out a little bit further than the real point of sale credit card terminal.
- Gently tug or wiggle the credit card terminal prior to making a payment. Skimmers are often held on place by magnets or weak adhesives.
- If available, utilize the “tap to pay” feature that many gas stations and point of sale machines offer.
- If you locate a skimmer, please notify the manager of the business, and call the Tulsa Police Department non-emergency line at 918-596-9222.
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