Breaking Editor
Four credit card skimmers were found in gas pumps at a gas station off NC 54 this past weekend by Carrboro police officers for the third time since March in the same location.
Capt. Chris Atack of the Carrboro Police Department said the investigation is ongoing, but his gut feeling was that the instances are related.
“Carrboro’s a small town so I would think if something like this intricate is going on, it’s going to be part of a larger scheme, but that’s part of the investigation that’s occurring right now,” Atack said.
The Carrboro Police Department defined a “skimmer” as a malicious device placed on or inside a point of sale machine, such as a gas pump, according to a press release.
Atack said the location of the gas station off NC 54 at Circle K was optimal because there’s easy access to the pumps next to a busy highway.
“If you dig around, you can master keys online for some of these pumps, you can buy all the skimmer technology online too,” Atack said. “So it’s all out available out there, you just have to have someone that connects it all together and turns it into something nefarious.”
The Carrboro Police Department recommends not paying by credit card at the gas pumps but going inside the gas station instead, to avoid the possibility of financial identity theft, according to their press release.
