INDIANAPOLIS -- Rickers Gas is working to put the brakes on credit card skimmers' plans.
Over the past five days, skimmers have tried three separate times to install skimming devices at the Rickers station on the 3200 block of East 96th Street. They were stopped by newly installed alarms designed to do just that.
Rickers will spend nearly $170,000 to outfit skimming alarms on each pump at all of its 56 Central Indiana stores. Until then, the company has installed security tape over the pumps and store employees have been inspecting the pumps several times per day.
IMPD has made skimming a priority for its Organized Crime Unit. Last week, an officer stopped a California trucker passing through Indianapolis. IMPD confiscated a quarter of a million dollars in cash, thousands of credit cards and a number of skimming devices.
To protect yourself from credit card skimmers, follow these tips:
- Get in the habit of using the same ATM machine for your transactions. Become familiar with it and be able to recognize changes to the machine.
- Use ATM machines inside banks rather than on the street (where they’re easier for thieves to access).
- If you’re visiting an unfamiliar ATM machine that is not inside a bank, examine it carefully for devices. Card or cash trapping devices need to be glued or taped to the card reader or cash dispenser. Look for ‘extra’ cameras beyond the basic and generally obvious ATM security camera.
- Never rely on the help of strangers to retrieve a confiscated card.
- Never use an ATM machine when other people are lingering.
- Report confiscated cards immediately. If you can, don’t leave the machine. Instead call the bank from the ATM where your card was taken using a cell phone.
- Don’t use ATM machines with extra signage or warnings posted on the machine.
- Never follow a link in a supposed bank email notice. If you are wondering if your bank has really contacted you via email, then close the email and directly type your bank’s website address into your browser. Visit your account and look for update notices directly on your account or bank’s website. The email is almost always a phishing scam.
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