# Using a credit card at gas stations and ATM's is getting to be a crap shoot....



## Cait43 (Apr 4, 2013)

I never realized that they actually replace the reader inside the gas pump(not an add on) so you can not tell its a skimmer....

Use of credit card 'skimmers' at gas stations, ATMs is exploding - AOL


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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

Yes, I'm aware of what's going on, but I still prefer to pay at the pump, vs. going inside, leaving my credit card, then going back to the pump, pump my gas, then going back inside to pay for the gas, get my card back, and then return to my vehicle. What a PITA!! :smt076

The moment the gas stations become fully financially responsible for any losses, will be the very day that they will eliminate the problem once and for all. At Costco's and Sam Clubs, they have pump attendants that wander around the pump islands, assisting customers. As far as I know, Costco / Sam Clubs are not experiencing this scammer issue. 

I have not been a victim of any credit card or debit card fraud.......yet. I keep an extremely close eye on all of my credit cards via the on-line accounts on a daily basis. I'm a member of Credit Karma as well, and they do a very good job of monitoring my credit score. I'm also a member of another company that monitors all my accounts for suspicious activity and alerts me to fraudulent trends / scams that crop up. 

It's all about vigilance baby! :smt033


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

The article says they're recommending stations use security seals on pumps. I just recently saw them on the pumps at a Walmart where I bought gas. I thought maybe they were the state inspector's stamps, but in looking closer at them, I saw they were Walmart labeled seal tapes. Walmart must be on top of it (at least I hope they are).


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## TurboHonda (Aug 4, 2012)

I live in Oklahoma. I recently made a weekend trip to Illinois, using my credit card for gas. The day I got back home my credit card company called me to let me know that someone had attempted $600 in purchases/cash advances, using my card, at a truckstop in New Mexico.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

TurboHonda said:


> I live in Oklahoma. I recently made a weekend trip to Illinois, using my credit card for gas. The day I got back home my credit card company called me to let me know that someone had attempted $600 in purchases at a truckstop in New Mexico.


Well, all this automation and technology, and the government has been trying to eliminate cash for years. Guess it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.


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## PT111Pro (Nov 15, 2014)

RK3369 said:


> Well, all this automation and technology, and the government has been trying to eliminate cash for years. Guess it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.


I don't know if you are right. I have never seen that any government or any bank spend too many thoughts on customer safety. I think they don't care because it is at the end your personal problem.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

PT111Pro said:


> I don't know if you are right. I have never seen that any government or any bank spend too many thoughts on customer safety. I think they don't care because it is at the end your personal problem.


Not what I meant. Government pushes automation because then they can watch and "see" what everyone is doing financially, especially with a "cashless" society. Having cash in society in any form allows an underground economy to prosper which the government can not regulate or tax, and that's what they really want to be able to do.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

Twice in the last 4 months my Discover card has been compromised; in each case, the Fraud department at Discover detected the fraudulent charges before they hit my account and checked with me by phone. I confirmed that the charges were bogus and they took care of it (first time it was an iTunes purchase, and I don't use iTunes; second time, it was a LARGE donation to a nationally-recognized charity). Apparently, my credit card company knows me well enough to know that I am too cheap to make/finance such a donation... :mrgreen:

Both times, they closed the account and second-day-shipped us new cards. It's getting to be a pain to transfer the periodic monthly billings to the new accounts. Strange thing is, I don't use this card that much; maybe a dozen different companies in the last 2-3 months? 

I hope that makes it easier for the fraud folks to figure out what company is the problem, and I hope the company finds out who the leaker is.

And I can't say on a fairly family-friendly forum what I hope they do to the folks who've been leaking my info (if they catch them)... :smt013


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## tony pasley (May 6, 2006)

I limit my the ways I use my cards. On-line I use a prepaid green dot card, I don't use a card at any fast food joint, and a card with limited use for gas.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

tony pasley said:


> I limit my the ways I use my cards. On-line I use a prepaid green dot card, I don't use a card at any fast food joint, and a card with limited use for gas.


I may have to start doing something similar, if this keeps up.


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## PT111Pro (Nov 15, 2014)

> RK3369
> Not what I meant. Government pushes automation because then they can watch and "see" what everyone is doing financially, especially with a "cashless" society. Having cash in society in any form allows an underground economy to prosper which the government can not regulate or tax, and that's what they really want to be able to do.


Oh - OK I can see that.
I compare often to Europe and there some times to much on Germany. The people there don't use credit and debit carts on a regular base. Banks and the Government (for your mentioned reasons) had tried so often now to implement the card system and the people didn't take it. The identity theft deal over there is in the .00 something area for that reason.

The government made even laws that the provider of any credit card machine, like ATM, Gas station computer is responsible for restoring the credit, paying all the expenses even have to replace the lost money and the people still didn't take the cards. A young man that want to impress his date would never use a credit card to pay the drink because it would tell her he has no money and have to pay a beer on credit or he is absolutely incapable to deal with money. You actually would look stupid.

However, you should see how fast that machines become safe to use if the Bank, the Gas company, the Store is hold 100% reliable for the use of its machines. 
In the US I can use my wife's credit or debit card and no one cares. I can go to best buy and spend hundreds of dollars and show on the outlet a credit card with the name "Susan Female" on it, even If i apparently lock far from a Susan. If the Store would be reliable for that purchase if the card is stolen you should see how fast the lady on the outlet would call her supervisor if I try to pay that laptop with Susans Credit Card. That is the problem in my book. Unsecured Machines that no one cares about because the customer have to carry the theft and careless stores that don't care because they get their money anyway. You should see how fast the stores would change their habits if you could ask them to give your money back. 
Just image how the credit cart device on a pump would be protected when EXXON would have to reimburse your lost and pay your expenses to restore your credit. No the pumps in Europe take credit too but you don't addthings to that device, or open that machines without breaking the entire face of that machine and make it unusable.

Insanity is that I have to go and buy security for my credit cards that belong to a bank, and the bank is not even care about their own equipment. That is insane but widely accepted.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

That's the way it is over here, for sure. A couple years back I had a card hacked at a local restaurant. Service person wrote down the numbers and then used them online the next day and in person at a local mall. I was amazed to find out from the local bank when I called to report the suspicious charges on my account that one of the mall stores apparently would let anyone use credit card numbers and a security code from the back of the card without having the card with them????? That was just ridiculous, imo, but as you say, the store didnt' care because they would only be charged back for the purchase if someone noticed that their card had been used falsely. That's the problem here, nobody cares because they figure it's not coming out of their pocket and also nobody cares because they don't really consider it stealing, because it's a "big store or credit card company's money, and they rip everybody off anyhow, right???" 

I talked to a coworker today who also works at Walmart as a cashier on the weekends. She tells me that the number of people coming through the lines trying to steal stuff without paying is just incredible. They tell the cashier's that they are going to "lay away" department with the goods, then they just walk out the door with them. The cashiers watch them and tell security and sometimes they catch the people, and sometimes not. 

This country is beyond hope, imo.


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## PT111Pro (Nov 15, 2014)

> RK3369
> ..... that one of the mall stores apparently would let anyone use credit card numbers and a security code from the back of the card without having the card with them????? That was just ridiculous, imo, but as you say, the store didnt' care because they would only be charged back for the purchase if someone noticed that their card had been used falsely.


No - that is exactly the point. The store get not charged back by the bank. That I learned when it happen to me. We bought 4 years back a Laptop by Best The lady on the customer service outlet, when we picket up the laptop took my wife C-Cart walked to the back and came up front gave the card back, gave us the receipt and we where out the door. End of story? 
3 days later my bank calls me (accountant is my neighbor) and ask me why I am buying for $ 1000.00 gift carts at Sonic in Arkansas or was it Oklahoma I don't remember at the moment? Must be a Burger addicted or he sells the gift cards to that online store that pay you 80% of the worth of that gift cart. A way to make cash out of that money.
Sell Gift Cards for Cash: Get up to 94% Selling Gift Cards Online
They found out that lady gave the numbers to her boyfriend and he sold the numbers to someone on the street for 50 bugs.

Well - we ended up "NOT" to pay that money. Our money was back in the account because (I didn't know) we bay a certain amount for a Insurance on that card.

The Bank and the credit cart company they don't care at all. They get the money from the Insurance. Even if they don't get it from an insurance and don't charge the customer, they still make Billions of dollars on stolen credit cards and numbers because they use that as a justification for 20% and more c-cart interest rates. They first create the problem to have justification for fraud. I call that the first Industry that is allowed to TAX the citizen of a country. Nothing else is that.

And the Stores make Billions of Dollars on that fraud too. Just imagine how many goods are purchased on that big stores and malls on stolen Cards and stolen Card Numbers. I personally have seen a person at Walmart using a plain white cart with any print on it whatsoever. Still was accepted. 
Just go this weekend to the mall and just imagine how many stolen carts, stolen numbers are there assembled only today. Just imagine how much damage will be made until the holidays are over. Why is that only in the US and nowhere else? I tell you. because in other countries the Bank and the Stores are fully reliable for that fraud.

No - the Americans are not more stupid than the rest of the world. The US Americans should only start to think who is ending up paying for all that insanity and why it doesn't work outside the USA this way, even if they over there in EU, Afrika, Australia and Asia also using credit cards. Why does a VISA, Master and other card members in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Sidney or Tokio pay not more that 7-9% interest and a American 20% and more.

And on the Gas station someone add something to the card slot and you don't see that? There is no difference to the others? Or someone even opens a pump up, breaks the metal door and lock. 
The clerk can't see that someone works on that pumps. Really? Are there no cameras installed?



> paratrooper
> Yes, I'm aware of what's going on, but I still prefer to pay at the pump, vs. going inside, leaving my credit card, then going back to the pump, pump my gas, then going back


I'll do that too. Awareness is the key. If something just looks suspicious scratches on the plastic is enough or it seems not right or unusual, I stop what I am doing and go to the next Station.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

Well, I have to assume that the store got charged back for the false purchase, because the bank gave me back the charge on my account, so I didn't end up paying for it. Whatever's going on, somebody is losing. Probably the insurance companies who insure business for these types of things, then in the long run, it doesn't matter to them because they just raise the premiums for the insurance they are selling to protect businesses from this type of cyber theft.


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## pic (Nov 14, 2009)

TurboHonda said:


> I live in Oklahoma. I recently made a weekend trip to Illinois, using my credit card for gas. The day I got back home my credit card company called me to let me know that someone had attempted $600 in purchases/cash advances, using my card, at a truckstop in New Mexico.


What happened ?? Attempt failed ? Happy thanksgiving :smt1099


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## TurboHonda (Aug 4, 2012)

pic said:


> What happened ?? Attempt failed ? Happy thanksgiving :smt1099


Charges were denied. They called me to confirm and then cancelled and reissued a new card.


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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

It's not all that hard to secure the doors on the gas pumps to prevent unauthorized access. 

If that means going to be a better locking system or maybe aiming the security cameras at the pumps directly, so be it. Just get it done and get beyond this crap.


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## PT111Pro (Nov 15, 2014)

> TurboHonda
> They called me to confirm and then cancelled and reissued a new card


But you paid for the new card, not the gas station. Right?


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## ybnorml (Nov 26, 2014)

RK3369 said:


> Well, I have to assume that the store got charged back for the false purchase, because the bank gave me back the charge on my account, so I didn't end up paying for it. Whatever's going on, somebody is losing. Probably the insurance companies who insure business for these types of things, then in the long run, it doesn't matter to them because they just raise the premiums for the insurance they are selling to protect businesses from this type of cyber theft.


In the long run, the customer will end up paying more to cover the rise in cost incurred by the store owner to cover the increase in his insurance premiums.


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## TurboHonda (Aug 4, 2012)

PT111Pro said:


> But you paid for the new card, not the gas station. Right?


There was no charge to anybody. The culprit card reader was not identified, if that was the culprit. The attempted charges were rejected. The credit card company caught the problem and called me. The system worked.

I have had my credit card company call me when a charge was made on one side of the country and then a few hours later on the otherside. As a pilot or air traveler, this is not unusual.

I use a credit card for everything. I call it a convenience card because I pay it in full every month. I haven't paid any interest in over 20 years. I save and match all receipts and check my online account frequently.

I refuse to have a debit card, because it offers no advantage or convenience to me.


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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

TurboHonda said:


> There was no charge to anybody. The culprit card reader was not identified, if that was the culprit. The attempted charges were rejected. The credit card company caught the problem and called me. The system worked.
> 
> I have had my credit card company call me when a charge was made on one side of the country and then a few hours later on the otherside. As a pilot or air traveler, this is not unusual.
> 
> ...


I too have had credit cards for years and I can't recall the last time I paid any interest on one. I take advantage of the ones with 0% interest for 18 months or so. Before that grace period expires, I open up a new account with similar offers, then close the one that is about to expire.

The last card I got, was a Chase card, and I got $200.00 cash back for making a purchase of at least $500.00 within the first three months of receiving the card.

I used that free $200.00 to help pay for a Stihl pole saw that I bought with the card. That was one of the better deals that a credit card has offered. They wised up and it's now been reduced to $100.00.

*Link to the saw I bought:* http://www.stihlusa.com/products/pole-pruners/professional-pole-pruners/ht131/


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