OK, now this is getting scary. According to a newspaper article in The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, thieves are now using blue tooth technology in their credit card “skimming” crimes.  Credit card skimming is the crime of obtaining customer information from the magnetic stripe on the back of the credit card.  In retail shops and restaurants, dishonest employees handling customer credit card transactions swipe the card through a portable device that captures customer information.  They then usually sell the information to others in organized crime rings that create fraudulent credit cards in the customers’ names and buy expensive items or gift cards that are easily fenced for large profits. 

In this new theft scheme, a credit card skimmer, along with a small computer hard drive and the Bluetooth device have been found on the inside of gas pumps at convenience service stations along interstate highways throughout the Southeast.  Local police and the U.S. Secret Service are working together and suspect that the culprits have a universal gas pump key which enables them to open the pumps and install the devices.  The thieves can then retrieve customer information from the devices from a distance away with a cell phone or laptop computer with blue tooth technology. They never have to return to the pumps.

To protect against this crime, the police and U.S. Secret Service recommend the following:

1.       Check all credit and debit card statements

2.       Place a security code on all credit cards so only the owner of the card can use them

3.       Cancel any compromised account

4.       Check credit ratings

Credit card “skimming” is one the fastest growing organized crime theft trends.  The public is frequently cautioned to be alert whenever a retailer is handling their credit card during a purchase.  This crime is particularly heinous in that their customer information is stolen and the credit card never left their fingers.

 I guess a #5 for the above recommendations could be “Use cash”.  But if you are like me, it’s just too inconvenient.  We’ve been promised that new credit card security technology is coming, but who will be more “techno savvy”, the good guys or the bad guys?