Credit card skimming scams on the rise in San Antonio, Austin

Click through to see what you can look for and do to help avoid these devices. less Credit card skimmers like this one found by the San Antonio Police Department can be placed inside gas pumps and steal the financial information of unsuspecting customers. Click through to see what you can look ... more Credit card skimmers like this one found by the San Antonio Police Department can be placed inside gas pumps and steal the financial information of unsuspecting customers. Photo: Courtesy Of San Antonio Police Department / Photo: Courtesy Of San Antonio Police Department / Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Credit card skimming scams on the rise in San Antonio, Austin 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

Becky DeLeon checks the security tape covering the lock and access door to the gas pumps at Molina’s San Antonio Country Store every day.

DeLeon, a former police officer, is looking for evidence of credit card skimmers. If the tape’s broken, she immediately calls an outside company to inspect the pumps.

“We have a lot of customers that are real good at coming in and telling us ‘Hey, that strip is broken,’ and we immediately shut (the pump) off,” she said.

Skimming devices, which allow criminals to steal credit card information, are a growing problem in Travis and Bexar counties, both which have stepped up their enforcement, according to local police.

The San Antonio Police Department seized three skimmers from ATMs and four from pumps in 2016. So far this year, they’ve found 13 skimmers at ATMs and 70 at gas stations across San Antonio.

“We weren’t looking as hard as we probably should have been last year,” said Lt. Marcus Booth, the department’s financial crime director. “We’ve pushed quite a bit harder now.”

ATM skimming cases are easier to investigate since most of the machines are equipped with cameras, but gas stations and drivers are more vulnerable to being scammed. Skimmers target outdated pumps, pumps along highways and pumps that are farthest from the cash register, Booth said. Finding suspects also poses a challenge.

“They’re moving from town to town, and they don’t live here,” Booth said. “It makes it difficult from an investigative standpoint.”

Booth said they’ve been working with banks and encouraging gas station owners to update their pumps to encrypt credit card data.

State Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said credit card skimming scams are growing in Texas. And the Travis County Sheriff’s Office on Monday warned consumers about a surge in credit cards skimming around Austin, urging drivers to pay inside for gas.

“I know that takes away from the convenience of pay at the pump 100 percent, but right now that is the only way to be sure you’re avoiding your card being skimmed,” Capt. Craig Smith said.

He said deputies recently found three skimming devices at a pump in Wells Branch, the northern portion of Travis County. Two arrests have already been made, Smith said, and deputies are still investigating those cases. Deputies have also staked out gas stations in the county in hopes of catching someone installing a skimmer but have not been successful.

Authorities often don’t learn about a skimming device until it’s too late, according to Deputy Victor Perez, a financial crime investigator with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s probably a larger problem than we realize,” Perez said. “We normally find out about it through banks after they get fraud alerts from their customers.”

Buddy Reinhart, the general manager at San Antonio-based A&A Pump Co., said he gets two to three calls a month from customers about credit card skimmers. The company services gas pumps across South Texas.

“They’re out there. It seems like they come in spurts, and you’ll see one area that gets infected more than others,” Reinhart said.

Skimming equipment is easy to obtain, Perez said, and so are machines to help thieves clone credit cards.

“Once they get your info, they can slap it on a card that looks virtually legit. It includes a chip and everything,” Perez said. “I’ve seen counterfeit cards so accurate there’s no way you’d be able to tell without actually running the card.”

Texas Food & Fuel Association President Paul Hardin said credit card skimmers are a “statewide issue” but not “an epidemic.”

Members of his organization are urged to check their pumps daily, and consumers should also look to see if the security tape on gas pumps or access doors have been tampered with. Consumers can also check the credit card reader and keypad on the outside for devices before putting their credit card into the slot to see if anything looks off, he said.

Booth additionally suggests examining and tugging at the card slot to ensure it’s firmly attached to the machine. Even if the keypad is covered to protect privacy, Booth said, customers should still cover the pad with their free hand to make sure skimmers’ cameras don’t catch it.

Jeff Lenard, a spokesman with the National Association of Convenience Stores, said one customer falling victim to a skimmer is one too many, but he doesn’t believe the use of skimmers are prevalent.

“It is a problem when it is a problem for a customer, but … there are 40 million fill-ups every day in America and the incidence of skimming is a minuscule percentage of those transactions,” Lenard said.

The easiest prevention method is to pay with cash, Perez said. Besides that, Perez said customers should be proactive about guarding their information, regularly reviewing bank statements and keeping anti-virus software updated.

While DeLeon said she’s never found a skimmer at her store, even a rumor of one can hurt business.

“Would you go to a gas pump and stick your card in there if you felt like there were problems? I wouldn’t,” DeLeon said.

Relief may be coming in the future. Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have set a deadline of October 2020 for U.S. gasoline pumps to install chip card readers in upgrades that may cost the industry upward of $4 billion but are more difficult for thieves to crack.