Letter to the Editor: Consumers should be aware at the pump

The discovery of credit card skimmers having been installed on gas pumps at a local convenience store, and that customers have had their bank account information compromised is disturbing and needs more facts to be provided to the public to help prevent this from happening again.

For 15 years I worked for a large convenience chain in Iowa and do know something about this problem that unfortunately has happened at many gas stations around the state.

One method that gas stations, like the one I worked for use to prevent this type of scam, is to use security seals over the credit card reader door. These are large labels that are attached to the pump near the card reader, and if cut or torn by a scammer to install a skimmer, will read “VOID,” indicating the machine has been tampered with.

The chain I worked for used these security seals and we were required to physically check each pump twice a day to ensure that all seals were intact and no readers had been tampered with. I read in the article that this skimmer had been in place since late July.

I have no idea what other gas station chains do to prevent this tampering, or how they train their employees to check for this type of tampering. Still, it seems it is up to each customer to look for themselves and inspect the pump to make sure they aren’t using a credit card reader that has one of these skimmers installed. Security labels make it easy to tell if a skimmer is there. They just need to be placed on the pump to be effective.

I hope this information will help make the public more aware of how to protect themselves from this type of scam.

John Moore

Newton