CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- A new kind of skimmer has been discovered in the East Ridge area.

It’s a small device that can steal your credit card information without being detected.

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When a credit or debit card is ran through a skimmer, the device captures every detail stored in your card, sometimes including your pin number.

And officials say the ones that were found in East Ridge are different from the usual skimmers they come across, making this investigation a little more difficult.

Captain Tim Mullinax of the East Ridge Police Department stated, “The store’s open, I believe, 24 hours a day. So it’s somebody that kinda knew what they were doing, and was able to get in and out fairly quickly.”

It’s not certain how long they’ve been there, or how many credit cards were actually copied, but Captain Tim Mullinax with the East Ridge Police Department says skimmers were found Monday in two fuel pumps at this BP gas station on Ringgold Road.

“The manager had been doing routine maintenance on the machines, and discovered that someone had put a computer ribbon inside the actual cabinet in the machine that was reading the credit cards and the pin numbers, ” said Mullinax.

But these weren’t ordinary skimmers, which are usually placed on the outside of a card machine and much easier to spot.

Captain Mullinax says the ones that were found in East Ridge were internal, meaning they were placed inside the pump, making them harder to detect by unsuspecting customers.

“We’re always one step behind the curve. We have to learn the new technology as soon as we come across it. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s difficult. This one’s more… This one’s more, technologically savvy then most of them.”

Officials are now urging everyone to pay close attention to where you use your credit cards, and to frequently check your bank statements.

“Make sure that everything’s on the up and up. Make sure nothing’s out of the ordinary, if it is notify your bank as soon as you can, so we can get video because that’s usually the easiest way to find people.”

The Captain also says the department plans to investigate this incident for as long as they can with as much intensity as they can until they find answers.