Tulsa Police Warn People After Credit Card Skimmers Found At Gas Stations, ATM

Tulsa Police are warning people about credit card skimmers.

They found four of them in the past few weeks at gas stations and an ATM.

Skimmers steal people's personal information every time someone swipes their credit or debit card.

Police say people using a card to get gas need to pay attention to what the cardholders look like to make sure it's the actual machine and not a skimmer that's been added.

Emma Foster uses a card every time she gets gas.

"It's just kind of scary, just not knowing what could happen,” said Foster. “You don't really have a safe place that you can go knowing that your information is going to be secure."

Card skimmers are little plastic pieces that criminals attach to the card reader with magnets or tape.

Lieutenant Andrew Weeden with the Tulsa Police Financial Crimes Unit says look for something bulky and sticking out further than the card reader normally would be.

"Any time you get gas here in the near future, before you make a payment, just actually tug on the machine,” said Weeden. “Give it a little wiggle, a little tug. If it's a credit card skimmer that is installed over the normal point-of-sale machine, it's probably going to come off right in your hand when you give it a tug."

He says it’s a good idea to check your bank statements frequently, especially if you’ve bought gas in Tulsa recently.

"As soon as your credit card information gets put into somebody's hands that it shouldn't be, they can damage your credit, they can take out lines of credit in your name, they can buy things,” said Weeden. “The most common thing we see is basically unauthorized purchases on your credit card."

He hopes people will check the machine every time they get gas, just in case.

“We don't want to scare people into thinking there's skimmers on every gas pump or anything like that, but just be diligent,” said Weeden. “Use tap-to-pay if you can."

TPD says one way to get around the card skimmers is to use tap to pay rather than swipe if the gas station offers it.

Officers also say if you see a skimmer, tell the manager and call the police non-emergency line.