Credit card skimmer found at Hendersonville gas station pump

Andy Cordan
·2 min read
2

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Hendersonville Police Department has issued a warning for anyone planning to buy gas using a credit card: Slow down and make sure someone hasn’t tampered with the point of purchase area.

On Thursday, May 16, police found an altered gas pump at a station on New Shackle Island Road.

The probe started when someone called to report unauthorized usage on his credit card. When officers investigated where the individual had used that card, one of the locations was the gas pump.

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After inspecting a particular pump, authorities discovered signs of tampering on the seal. With the help of station personnel, investigators opened the machine and found components of a card skimming operation.

“Whenever you open that up, you see what we know as a ‘bypass,’ where we can see that they’re intercepting card information when it’s utilized at that pump,” said Cmdr. Scott Ryan with the Hendersonville Police Department.

According to investigators, the skimmers obtained nine different credit card numbers using the bypass device on this one gas pump. How much may have been charged against those nine cards was not immediately known.

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“Whenever a card is used under these circumstances, the device — the skimmer — retains the card information, and then a bad guy is able to drive up and the information is transmitted to his phone, laptop, or whatever by low energy Bluetooth,” Ryan explained.

When it comes to skimming operations, watch out for these warning signs:

  • Check the surface of the pump and make sure all seals are tight.

  • Make sure nothing on the point of sale display wiggles.

  • Look for hidden cameras that might have been installed to capture your pin codes.

“It’s easy money for the bad guys. We’re seeing these devices in different variations, even inside the lanes of stores at checkout centers,” the commander told News 2.

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He added that it’s a brazen move, but everyone is too busy doing their own thing to notice: “We need people. When you drive by and you see somebody at a gas pump and the door is open, give us a call, let us check that out. We’ll get right on it.”

Ryan recommends using SmartPay technology, complete with near-field communication (NFC) tag readers, which allow two electronic devices to communicate within inches of each other.

Police are in the process of pulling video from that gas station to see if it shows the suspect(s) in action. In the meantime, if you have any information about this gas pump skimming scheme, contact the Hendersonville Police Department at 615-822-1111.

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