Better Business Bureau of the Upstate gives safety tips after skimmers found in Spartanburg Co.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – The Better Business Bureau of the Upstate spoke with 7NEWS on Friday after six card skimmers were discovered at two Spartanburg County Valero gas stations earlier this week.

A card skimmer is a device that steals banking card numbers from card readers at ATMs, gas stations, restaurants and retail stores. Skimmers can be difficult to spot due to their design looking like part of the terminal.

“It happens all over the United States and obviously it’s happening here in the Upstate, South Carolina, but consumers lose thousands, and again, scammers continue to use this,” said Hunter Jones, President of the Better Business Bureau of the Upstate.

On Tuesday, four skimmers were found at a Valero gas station in Cowpens .

“With Credit Card skimming, a consumer enters their card, they push it into the slot and that’s when [scammers] get their credit card information,” said Jones.

On Thursday, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office reported two more skimmers were found in a Valero gas station pump in Spartanburg .

The incident report noted that the skimmers at the Spartanburg station were plugged into the card reader and appeared to be a Bluetooth device.

“People are continuing to fall for this, and again it’s such an easy thing to do because they can come in at night and install those skimmers, or it could be in plain daylight,” said Jones. “It could look like they’re getting gas and they’re over there, possibly installing a skimmer and no one even notices.”

A good safety tip when you’re filling up is to look for the inspection stickers commonly found around the pump. If broken, notify a station attendant.

“I don’t typically recommend the consumers to start shaking things or moving things simply because that is someone else’s property, and when you start manipulating the device you can potentially do damage to the gas pump,” said Jones.

The BBB also recommends looking for any discoloration around the reader and to consider paying with cash.

“When you’re entering that card, if you feel any kind of resistance whatsoever or it doesn’t wanna give your card back, that’s a red flag and you might want to check with the attendant inside,” said Jones. “If you feel like you’re a victim, you can go to annualcreditreport.com. That’s one place where you can check all three credit reporting agencies. You can check and see if anything is being taken out with your name with your personal information.”

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