Credit card skimmer found in Wood County gasoline pump
Device copies info from magnetic strips on cards
Photo provided by the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. Inspectors with the state office of weights and measures were alerted to a credit card skimmer. Police said the owner and employees of the gasoline station had no idea the electronic device had been installed in one of their pumps.
Photo by Jeffrey Saulton A skimmer device that can be wired into the card readers and keypad of a gasoline pump was found inside a pump Wednesday.
Photo provided by the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. Inspectors with the state office of weights and measures were alerted to a credit card skimmer. Police said the owner and employees of the gasoline station had no idea the electronic device had been installed in one of their pumps.
Photo by Jeffrey Saulton A skimmer device that can be wired into the card readers and keypad of a gasoline pump was found inside a pump Wednesday.
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PARKERSBURG -- Local law enforcement was alerted to the discovery of a skimmer that can read and copy information from a card's magnetic strip inside a pump at a local gasoline station.
Wood County Sheriff Steve Stephens said the skimmer was found after inspectors from the West Virginia Division of Labor's Office of Weights and Measures were alerted by a third party, which monitors card readers, to the problem.
Stephens said the department was alerted to the find at about 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Mini Giant No. 3 at the intersection of Interstate 77 and West Virginia 2.
"They were there on Feb. 9 to inspect the pumps and they were clean," Stephens said. "Somehow someone got in there and installed the skimmer and most people would not notice or think there was a problem."
Stephens and Deputy C.L. McClung said the station personnel had no idea the pumps had been tampered with by having a skimming device installed. McClung said the station is closed at night and there were no security cameras so a person or persons were able to get inside a pump and install the skimmer without being seen.
"These pumps use a common key and whoever did that was able to get access and install the skimmer," Stephens said.
McClung added the station owner and employees were not aware anything was wrong until the inspectors made their find.
"They had no idea this was installed," he said. "Nothing was showing on the outside; it was all wired inside. Unless a person is an expert on the pumps, they'd never know it was there."
Stephens said to his knowledge this was the first time the sheriff's department answered a call about a skimmer being found locally. Stephens said there have been no reports of information taken from a card being used.
Skimmers are able to read and store credit card information found on the card's magnetic stripe and can also store the PIN associated with the card.