What is skimming and how is data being stolen?

As you are aware, skimming is a form of payment card fraud and theft when thieves obtain unauthorized data to sell the information on the dark web, use the account to make purchases online, and create cloned credit cards that they often use to engage in stealing fuel. Thieves break into fuel dispensers using universal keys and specialty tools that can be bought online or at your local hardware store.

There are two types of skimmers: 

Skimming devices are used by criminals to obtain credit card numbers and cardholder information without the customer’s knowledge.  While skimming can occur at any point of sale (POS), it is most common at Automated Fuel Dispensers (AFDs). With the EMV liability shift at the forecourt just 18 months away, the window of opportunity for thieves to get this data is closing.

What is skimming?

Verifone is transitioning away from the Zone Router and will allow customers to control their hardware and networking requirements. This means that sites will require a site routing device certified under the Verifone MNSP program. 

Skimmers at gas pumps are a continuous threat and the use of skimmers by fraudsters to steal credit card information is on the rise. 

To protect your sites and your consumers, consider doing the following on a daily basis:

1.  Use security decals on all dispensers and inspect dispensers for tampering

2.  Install unique locks on your dispensers

3.  Monitor activity at the dispensers, especially those that are hardest to see from inside the store

Data released by Visa showed that counterfeit fraud ticked down at U.S. merchants by 75 percent from September 2015 to March 2018 as more storefronts started accepting chip cards.

To that end, Visa said that, as of its latest “Visa Chip Card Update,” as many as 67 percent of storefronts in the United States now accept chip cards.

The company further elaborated that counterfeit fraud dollars at all U.S. merchants slipped 46 percent.

Visa recently published a report revealing that US merchants that completed the chip upgrade have registered a whopping 66% decline counterfeit fraud in June 2017 compared to June 2015.

According to the report, more than 2.3 million merchants, or 55% of storefronts in the US, are currently accepting chip cards, a surge of 542% since the beginning of EMV migration in the country.

2017

VeriFone EMV Software

Skimmers at gas pumps are a growing threat and the use of skimmers by fraudsters to steal credit card information is on the rise. 

With the three-year extension to update your dispensers with chip-card readers, card skimmers will continue to be a threat until at least October 2020 when liability shifts to the party that does not enable EMV during the fraudulent transaction.

To protect your sites and your consumers, consider doing the following on a daily basis:

October 1, 2017, marked two years since the October 1, 2015, EMV liability shift took place at the Point-of-Sale (POS).  Hardware and software upgrades should have already been made to your POS, allowing you to accept EMV cards and providing you with protection from counterfeit transaction liability.

Join us for the 2017 WMDA/CAR Expo...admission is FREE!

Stop by and visit Ewing Oil to learn more about Liberty Pay, the latest information on EMV, and much more.

Hope to see you there!