Agents: Men Used Skimmers On Oklahoma Gas Pumps To Steal Thousands

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Muskogee just indicted two men for putting skimmers on gas pumps all over Oklahoma and stealing hundreds of credit and debit card numbers when people paid at the pump.

The victims had no idea it was happening, until their bank accounts were drained.

The investigation began with Durant Police and was picked up by the Secret Service. The Secret Service tracked Kevin Konstantinov and Elvin Alisuretove from Seattle to Oklahoma through plane tickets, car rentals and hotel rooms.

Agents say, when the men visited, they installed skimmers inside Murphy USA station gas pumps, using a master key.

Investigators say the men even put a fake plate on the front of the pump, so people getting gas had no idea that when they swiped their card, the skimmer was stealing their card number and also the four digit PIN for debit cards.

"We had losses in Oklahoma close to $400,000, in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas area, with about 300 customers affected," said Frank Coffman, with the Secret Service.

They say the men flew back to Seattle, made bogus cards with the stolen numbers, then came back to Oklahoma and went to ATM after ATM to withdraw cash.

Surveillance cameras caught them going to 17 different ATMs on just July 11, investigators say, taking $8,000 here, $5,000 there, over and over.

They said the video shows Konstantinov at an ATM in disguise, for 16 minutes straight, using card after card to withdraw cash from people's bank accounts.

One victim in Durant lost $4,000 in two days.

"If you see an individual enter an ATM, access an ATM, and sit there and process eight, 10, 20 cards, we're not asking you to interject yourself into an investigation, but alert somebody, write down a tag," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Roberts.

After months of investigation, agents arrested the men. They 're charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

This case demonstrates how you can have your information stolen no matter how careful you are to protect it.

"All they did was put a credit card in a gas pump," said U.S. Attorney Mark Green.

The next time you're at the pump, look for the security strip, like the ones we found at Quik Trip, that tell you the pump has not been tampered with. And agents say, always do your transaction as credit, not debit, so no one can get your PIN.

There are hand held skimmers that people can use at restaurants to steal your numbers also, so they recommend you use a credit card to pay, not a debit card. The thief may rack up big charges on your credit card bill, but won't drain your bank account.

Agents say the technology they saw in this case was more sophisticated than anything they've seen yet.