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http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/bluetooth-at-heart-of-gas-station-credit-card-scam/141087
By Ellen Messmer
Network World Canada
13 July 2010
Thieves are stealing credit-card numbers through skimmers they secretly
installed inside pumps at gas stations in the U.S., using Bluetooth
wireless to transmit stolen card numbers, says law enforcement
investigating the incidents.
"We've sent detectives out to every gas station within a mile of (U.S.)
Interstate (highway) 75," says Lt. Steve Maynard, spokesman for the
Alachua County Sheriff's Office in Gainesville, Fla., which last
Thursday was first notified about a suspicious skimming device
discovered by a maintenance worker at a Shell Station. So far, three
card-skimming devices hidden in gas pumps at three stations have been
discovered by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Secret
Service has been notified as part of the gas-pump card-skimming
investigation.
The Secret Service may be best known as the U.S. president's bodyguard,
but it is also responsible for investigating fraud and computer crime.
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office, along with other local police
departments, are trying to inspect as many gas stations in the area as
possible, especially focusing on those along I-75. But law enforcement
is encouraging gas station operators to look for signs of the skimmers
at their pumps and contact them if they think they've found something.
The Secret Service has indicated there's a crime wave throughout the
Southeast involving the gas-station pump card skimmers, and it may be
traced back to a single gang that may be working out of Miami, Maynard
says.
[...]
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