Credit card skimmers have been discovered inside gas pumps at the Circle K near 102 North Carolina Highway 54 for the third time in nearly three months.

According to Capt. Chris Atack of the Carrboro Police Department, the most recent discovery was made after the North Carolina Department of Agriculture inspected that location last month.

“In May, we had the same investigator that had the initial case [in March] discover a skimmer at this Circle K on NC 54,” he recalled. “Our officers over the weekend were being vigilant and actually physically inspected the pumps at the same gas station, and were able to find four more skimmers that were not there as of the middle of May, so we’ve got some serious skimming going on.”

Atack also explained that the latest skimmers extracted from the pumps at the station emitted fewer signals and were harder to detect than their predecessors.

“We’ve already seen an evolution since the May skimmer,” he reported. “The May skimmer had a Bluetooth signal that you could detect; this one was not detectable, so we’ve already had an evolution in about two weeks.

“Any of the tips like ‘check how the gas pumps look externally, is the lock compromised, do you detect a Bluetooth signal that you can’t explain’ — all that’s gone out the window, because here we have a perfectly normal-looking pump with no Bluetooth signal, but there’s a skimmer inside.”

Criminals install skimmers in automated teller machines and gas pumps to log credit card numbers and transaction details that are retrieved at a later date.

Those details are used to commit payment fraud, but Atack reminded residents that they are less likely to be victimized if they forego the convenience of paying at the pump.

“Somehow, they’re accessing the gas pump, either through some sort of a key or they’ve compromised the lock or the security mechanism, and they’re actually physically placing the skimmer device into the gas pump,” he stated. “If you fill up there, you can walk inside and it’ll be like a traditional transaction — unless the clerk themselves is taking it, which we don’t believe is occurring in this case.”

News of local credit card skimming has come in the wake of data breaches that affected patrons of nearly every Chipotle restaurant and Kmart store in the country.

The Carrboro Police Department is considering whether the skimming at Circle K is part of a larger fraud operation involving suspects that are not local to the area.

“We don’t think it’s specific to Carrboro; we think it’s part of a larger connection,” Atack claimed. “That’s something we’re trying to figure out, but we don’t have any specific information at this point that we would be releasing.”

Residents who may have had their transaction details compromised are encouraged to review their bank and credit card statements for any unauthorized activity.

Atack relayed that victims of payment fraud should notify the police departments in the cities or towns where the disputed transactions took place.

“If your credit card was used at the Food Lion in Carrboro without your consent, and you have your credit card — you know it wasn’t physically stolen, but somehow, somebody has compromised it — then you need to file a report with the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction where that Food Lion is actually located,” he noted.

Information on the suspects in this case is being sought by Sgt. Ryan Daniels at 919-918-7418, but anonymous tips may also be placed through Crime Stoppers at 919-942-7515.

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