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September 12, 2020
| 9:00 a.m.
Throughout latest months, bank card theft units (generally referred to as skimmers) have been detected in Santa Barbara County. Although it’s unknown how widespread the issue is, inspectors from the Santa Barbara County Agriculture/Weights & Measures Division will probably be growing their enforcement surveillance at gas stations.
That is aimed on the credit score card-skimming units discovered inside gasoline pumps at service stations all through the county. These skimmers could also be discovered spliced into the bank card reader, permitting the cardboard info to be recorded throughout routine refueling and later retrieved or despatched to an offsite receiver.
Normally there aren’t any externally seen indicators on the gas pumps displaying the presence of those hidden units.
Inspectors should work carefully with station operators to look at the pumps and visually discover these skimmers. As soon as discovered, these units are eliminated and inspectors observe up with native, state and federal regulation enforcement companions.
Within the final two months, 9 skimmer units had been discovered at 4 separate gasoline stations. This led to the Agricultural Commissioner/Weight & Measures Division conducting a countywide sweep of greater than 40 chosen gasoline stations to seek for these insidious skimmers.
The excellent news is that no skimmers had been discovered and that county employees will regularly be looking out for the units whereas performing gas station inspections.
Matthew Maiten, deputy sealer, provides the next precautions to customers to keep away from bank card info theft:
“Pay money for gas purchases.
“Use debit playing cards, which can supply better safety because of the further PIN wanted for transactions.
“Use gasoline pumps closest to the service station attendants.
“Look ahead to safety stickers that seem damaged or tampered with.
“Additionally, customers ought to all the time evaluation their bank card and banking statements for suspicious expenses.”
For extra info contact the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner/Weights&Measures Workplace in Santa Barbara, 805-681-5600 or in Santa Maria, 805-934-6200, or go to www.agcommissioner.com.
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