NORTH SALT LAKE — Two credit card skimmers at a North Salt Lake gas station could have been in place for two to three weeks last month, according to police, secretly gathering and possibly transmitting credit card numbers and PINs.

It’s the latest example in Utah of a technology-fueled crime that’s sweeping the nation, as the card-reading devices become easier to hide.

“They’ve hooked these up to the internal workings of these gas pumps,” said North Salt Lake Police Chief Craig Black. “Your pin numbers and anything that you entered into this pump was potentially exposed.”

Not only were the devices undetectable from the outside, but Black explained that they also had the capability to transmit the stolen data via Bluetooth — directly to a crook’s computer.

“These are difficult crimes to even detect,” he said.

Maintenance workers found the skimmers Friday, Sept. 22, at the Flying J just off I-215 at 885 North Point Circle.

“We recently discovered there were illegal credit card skimmers placed on two pumps,” Pilot Flying J said in a statement to KSL. “We contacted authorities as soon as we realized there was a problem and continue to work closely with them.”

Flying J advised customers to contact their banks and their local police departments if they notice fraudulent transactions on their credit or debit cards.

Better technology

Skimmers used to be bulky additions placed on the outside of built-in card readers on ATMs and fuel pumps. Now, fraudsters use universal keys to install them inside the pumps — making it difficult to spot anything out of the ordinary.

“The devices are getting smaller, smarter, and more difficult to detect,” Utah Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jeff Plank said. “Some can actually send a text message.”

Sgt. Plank, who is also a member of the FBI Cyber Task Force, says wireless transmission makes it so the criminals don’t have to retrieve the skimmer to access the account numbers.

The next step is called “cashing out.” It’s usually done by a different group that puts the info on blank magnetic cards.

“These devices can be found all over the internet,” Plank said of the supplies needed to carry out the crime. “A hotel key card could work.”

Organized crime

Plank said the skimming operations are tied to a much larger network of organized crime with out-of-state operatives targeting Utah’s interstates.

“They’ll have various skimmers with them,” he said, “so what they’ll do is place one in one part of the county, and then get on I-15 and move up to the next county.”

In fact, in addition to North Salt Lake, Utah police agencies so far this year have broken up skimming operations in Centerville, Cottonwood Heights, Kaysville, Midvale and Richfield.

Cottonwood Heights Police say two men from Florida used a large rental truck to hide behind while installing the skimming devices on gas pumps.

Detectives in Midvale found 14 skimmers — ready to be placed on gas pumps — in a motel room full of supplies and cloned cards.

In Richfield, during a traffic stop along I-70, officers found two teenage boys from Romania with forged documents, six skimmers, bags full of blank cards and storage devices with about 300 credit card numbers. The boys said they were headed to Colorado.

That travel route is similar to the Flying J case. According to surveillance video obtained by North Salt Lake Police, whoever broke into the pumps in September was driving a rental car that was supposed to be returned in Denver. Police waited but it never showed up.

Additional help

As scammers benefit from better technology, Utah law enforcement came up way to get extra eyes on gas pumps across the state by enlisting the help of inspectors from the Utah Department of Agriculture.

Inspectors with the department’s Weights and Measures Program underwent training to identify skimmers spliced into wiring on the inside of gas pumps. The task is in addition to their normal job of testing pumps for accuracy.

“There’s been some major evolutions in the skimmers,” said Weights and Measures inspector Griff Ahlstrom. “They only have to open the dispenser one time, place it in and they can download all of the information.”

Ahlstrom says it takes a trained eye to spot if an illegal device has been added to the tangle of wires inside of the pump’s cabinet.

“That’s one of the main things that we look for is if it looks like something has been spliced into certain wires,” he said. “Then we know that something has been changed in the pump.”

During their visits, inspectors are also talking with gas station owners about security measures to make it more difficult for skimmers to be installed.

Customer tips

Before swiping their debit or credit cards, customers can also protect themselves by following these guidelines recently released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Utah Weights and Measures Program:

• Pay inside the store to ensure credit card information stays safe.
• Check to make sure the gas pump dispenser cabinet is closed and has not been tampered with. Many stations are now putting a piece of security tape over the cabinet to ensure it has not been opened by unauthorized individuals.
• Compare the pump’s card reader to nearby pumps and check of anything attached.
• Try to use a gas pump closer to the front of the store. Thieves often place skimmers at the gas pumps farther away from the store.
• Use a credit card instead of a debit card.
• If using a debit card, avoid using a PIN by choosing to run it as credit.

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