Nearly 60 credit card skimmers found in San Antonio over 2-month span

Credit card skimmers can be placed on the outside of gas pumps. This one was found by the San Antonio Police Department. Credit card skimmers can be placed on the outside of gas pumps. This one was found by the San Antonio Police Department. Photo: San Antonio Police Department Photo: San Antonio Police Department Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close Nearly 60 credit card skimmers found in San Antonio over 2-month span 1 / 38 Back to Gallery

On Feb. 21, San Antonio police were called to the Valero gas station on Bitters Road to seize three credit card skimmers. Four days later, they were called back again to seize a fourth.

Records obtained by mySA.com revealed San Antonio police have discovered 58 skimming devices at 23 local gas stations and banks in February and March of 2018. Of those, 21 were discovered in February and 37 in March.

The skimmers were spread out across the city and no region was targeted.

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

The records show seizures of skimmers are on the rise. San Antonio police only seized a few skimmers in 2016 and more than 70 in all of 2017.

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

Skimming devices are hidden within machines that take credit cards and allow criminals to steal credit card information from customers pulling money out of an ATM or filling up their cars at the pump.

Arrests are hard to come by because the people responsible for skimming typically move often to avoid being investigated, police have previously said.

The best way to avoid being a victim of fraud is to use cash as often as possible when filling up at the gas station or paying inside, and checking to see if the credit card slots on gas pumps have been tampered with.

Click through the slideshow to see if skimmers were found in your neighborhood in February and March of 2018.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA